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4A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 





A Book of 
MODERN PRAYERS 


A Collection of Prayers and Readings by 
Modern Writers, with an Introductory 


Essay on the Meaning and Value of Prayer 
Compiled and Edited by 


on 
SAMUEL McCOMB, D.D. 


DR sano 
cent GF PRIME. ~ 





Jui £4 i992 





Aeon oven, eeu 





LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 


55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4 
TORONTO, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS 


~ 1926 


Copyright, 1926, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 


Made in the United States 


To 
ELLEN AYER Woop 


A Believer in the Spiritual World 
and 


A Lover of All Good Causes 





PREFATORY NOTE 


The increasing demand for reality in reli- 
gion is showing itself in a new sense of the 
significance and value of prayer. Each age 
must discover the secret of prayer for itself. 
The prayers of a distant past will not meet 
the needs of the present. The way in which 
men think and the language in which they 
express their thoughts will of necessity be re- 
flected in their prayers. Hence the need for 
books such as the present one. The editor 
hopes also that it may be found useful in 
small groups which meet together in private 
houses as well as in churches for the practice 
of the art of prayer. With a few slight 
changes the prayers can be adapted for either 
public or personal use. 

The editgr’s thanks are due the Rev. John 
W. Suter, D.D., for the correct form of the 
prayer xlii which is one of Cardinal New- 
man’s most beautiful utterances; and for sev- 
eral valuable suggestions. The prayer (lx) 
usually called ‘‘Gladstone’s Prayer” has for 


[vii] 


PREFATORY NOTE 


its real author the Rev. William Griffiths, 
sometime rector of Shelsley Beauchamp 
(Eng.). A part of the introductory essay 
has appeared in the Contemporary Review 
in an article on ““The Renaissance of Prayer.” 
The editors and publishers are thanked for 
their kind permission to make use of it here. 

Any suggestions with a view to making 
this book more adequate to the purpose for 
which it is sent forth will be gratefully re- 
ceived by Editor and publishers. 





[ viii ] 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


The editor desires to acknowledge the gracious 
courtesy of the authors and publishers to whom 
application was made for the use of material. No 
One may reprint any of the prayers contained in this 
volume without first obtaining authority from the 
owners of the copyright. The editor hopes he will 
be forgiven if he has unwittingly transgressed the 
rights of any author or publisher. He tenders his 
grateful acknowledgments to the following: Dent 
and Sons for quotations from I. Hunter, Devo- 
tional Services, and E. Holmes, Dying Lights and 
Dawning; Scribner’s Sons for portion of a prayer 
by R. L. Stevenson; The Pilgrim Press for a prayer 
from W. Rauschenbusch’s Prayers of the Social 
Awakening; Bishop Thirkield for two prayers from 
his Service and Prayers; The University of Chicago 
Press for a prayer from University of Chicago Ser- 
mons; Central Conference of American Rabbis for 
a prayer from the Union Prayer Book; The Chal- 
lenge Books (Ltd.) for two prayers from J. S. 
Hoyland’s 4 Book of Prayers for Use in an Indian 
College; Elliott Stock for a passage from Basil Wil- 
berforce’s Sanctification by the Truth; Heffer and 
Sons (Ltd.) for an extract from J. S$. Hoyland’s 


[ix] 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


Sacrament of Common Life; Harcourt, Brace and 
Co., for a passage from a sermon by Dr. J. F. New- 
ton in Best Sermons 1924; ‘The Century Co., for 
an extract from Life and Letters of Dr. Hunting- 
ton; Kegan Paul, Trench, Tribner and Co., for a 
prayer from George Dawson’s Book of Prayers; 
The Very Rev. L. M. Watt, D.D., for an extract 
from his By Still Waters; T. and T. Clark for 
extracts from G. Watkin’s Knowledge of God, and 
W. S. Bruce’s Formation of Christian Character; 
G. H. Doran Co. and Sir Oliver Lodge for a pass- 
age from T'he Making of Man, and to the same 
publishers for extracts from W. S. Palmer’s Chris- 
tianity and Christ, J. Y. Simpson’s Man and the 
Attainment of Immortality, and L. P. Jacks’ The 
Lost Radiance of the Christian Religion; The Mac- 
millan Co. for extracts from Concerning Prayer 
by B. H. Streeter and others, The Spiritual Drama 
by A. L. Sears, Bishop B. F. Westcott’s Prayers for 
Family Use, W. H. Moberley’s essay in Founda- 
tions; V. R. Gibson’s The Faith that Overcomes the 
W orld; Mr. Colin Clements for two prayers from his 
A Book of Prayers for Boys; G. P. Putnam’s Sons 
(New York and London), for an extract from A. C. 
Benson’s From a College Window; T. N. Foulis 
(Edinburgh) for a passage from J. H. Oldham’s 
Possibilities of Prayer; Oxford University Press 
for two prayers from Dr. W. E. Orchard’s Divine 


[x] 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


Service; James Clarke and Co., for a passage from 
S. A. Tipple’s Spoken Words of Prayer and Praise; 
Fleming Revell Co, for an extract from British 
Preachers 1925; Dodd, Mead and Co., for a pas- 
sage from Maeterlinck’s Wisdom and Destiny, and 
prayers from A Book of Prayers for Personal and 
Public Use; Pitman and Sons for an extract from 
S. A. Brook’s Life Superlative; Mr. A. G. Grenfell 
for a prayer from 4 Book of Unconventional Pray- 
ers for Boys. 


[xi] 





CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Introductory Essay: Prayer: Its MEANING 
AND VALUE . : ce ; hs ‘ A I 


I. For Various GIFTS AND GRACES. . 29 
IJ. Morninc AND EVENING PRAYERS. . QI 
PEPE PECTAL COCCASIONS oy. oo. hatte eh LTS 
IV. SpecraL DuTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES . 125 
V. THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS . 137 
NOLOML MI VLE MORIA Mi te.0 0 iesck eens ils veto LSE 


AUTHORS OF PRAYERS: 4n Index. . . 157 


[xii] 





PRAYER: ITS MEANING 
AND VALUE 


OE of the most striking and at the same 

time most promising features of the 
religious situation today is the new interest 
in prayer, the strenuous endeavor to under- 
stand it, the search for fresh methods 
whereby it may be made more efficacious 
in the life of the individual and of the 
group. 

Some of the causes of this rebirth of 
prayer are fairly obvious. ‘To begin with, 
there is the new emphasis on the mystical 
element in religion. Christianity is a many- 
sided phenomenon, it has created institutions, 
customs, rites; it implies a definite ethic; and 
it has for its background a philosophy or 
general world view. Yet our age has dis- 
covered afresh that Christianity cannot be 
identified with any or all of these. Its unique 
greatness is seen in this, that it brings the 


Lz] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


soul face to face with ultimate reality, lifting 
it out of space and time and glorifying it 
with the vision of the Eternal. Hence, the 
psychologist is right when he says that prayer 
is religion. ‘The demand of thoughtful and 
serious minds is not for a new code of ethics, 
which at best can only say: “You ought, 
therefore you can,” but for religion in a new 
and entrancing light, as in essence the revela- 
tion of the Infinite working in and through 
the soul, Whose presence and reality man 
mystically discerns, and from Whom he de- 
rives his light, his purity, and his strength. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge has fathomed the 
human craving: 


“A sense o’er all my soul impressed 
That I am weak yet not unblessed, 
Since in me, round me, everywhere, 
Eternal strength and wisdom are.” 


On the intellectual side, we have the rise 
of the new psychology which seeks to under- 
stand prayer as a psychical process. Science 
is doing a great and useful work in showing 
how the subconscious life enters into the 
prayer-experience, and how prayers spring 
out of deep inner necessities of nature. We 


[2] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


now know that man is so constituted that be 
his formal beliefs what they may, there are 
situations in which he is compelled to pray. 
We know also that efficacious prayer depends 
on the presence of certain mental states. 
Without “recollection,” the withdrawal of a 
man into his own soul, without concentration 
on a high and holy purpose, without sur- 
render of the will, prayer is valueless because 
a mere playing with words. 

Lastly, we are becoming familiar with the 
empirical effects of prayer in connection with 
the various “‘spiritual healing’? movements so 
characteristic of our time. The materialistic 
tradition which for the past half century has 
governed the science of medicine to the 
rigorous exclusion of any moral or spiritual 
instrumentality in the cure of disease, has at 
last been challenged. Under the influence of 
prayer and faith it is now certain that various 
disorders, incapable of cure by the usual 
remedies, have been mitigated or wholly 
overcome. Of course, it is easy to dismiss 
these instances of spiritual cure as the fruits 
of “suggestion” or “‘self-suggestion.” But 
apart from the fact that we do not know 
the full implications of these terms, we 


[3] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


would, on this hypothesis, have the curious 
paradox that prayer is explicable only by a 
theory, which, when believed, would cause 
men to cease praying. It may be taken as 
one of the most certain conclusions of re- 
search into the nature of religion that all 
types of prayer, from the charm formulas 
of European peasants, or the magical work- 
ing of the Buddhist prayer-mill, to the 
high experiences of a St. Paul or a St. Teresa, 
there is always a reference to a Being or 
beings other than the person who prays. 

It is a singular fact that the difficulties and 
problems which sorely try the faith of one 
generation hardly exist for the men of the 
subsequent age. The change is not effected 
by the discovery of direct and satisfying solu- 
tions; it is rather that the problems are now 
viewed in the light of a wider and more satis- 
fying outlook. With the rise of science in 
the nineteenth century, men felt as they had 
not felt before, the difficulty of supposing that 
prayer had any place in a universe governed 
by invariable law. Nature was conceived as 
a vast mechanism controlled entirely from 
within, in which every event is the result of 
innumerable antecedent events, in which, 


[4] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


therefore, spontaneity, human or divine, be- 
comes an irrelevance. The religious teachers 
of the Victorian age, who had accepted the 
conclusion of science, surrendered at the same 
time the whole realm of nature to the world 
of rigid, inviolable law, while reserving the 
inner world of thought and emotion as the 
sphere in which God and the soul might meet 
in real fellowship. 

‘“The two very men,” says Dr. W. Herr- 
mann, “who have shown the richest pic- 
tures of the Christian life in their sermons, 
Schleiermacher and F. W. Robertson [and 
we may add Martineau], have never been 
able to overcome the thought that the sub- 
jection to law of all things that are real to 
the senses and the inner endlessness that the 
smallest event has, owing to its dependence 
on all other events, render it impossible that 
the progress of the world should be changed, 
because man will not submit to the fate that 
has been woven out of the conditions of the 
present state of the world. In the sermons 
of these great men we find some of the deep- 
est words ever spoken on the subject of 
prayer. But that which they have to say 
about the efhicacy of prayer shows how hard 

[5] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


it has become for faith to maintain itself un- 
troubled in the spiritual situation developed 
by the rise of science.” * 

We now know that science has failed to 
sound the universe. All the fundamental as- 
sumptions of nineteenth century physics are 
called in question. All dualisms and assumed 
Analities have been abolished. There is 
room for the operation of mysterious forces 
hitherto ignored by “‘orthodox”’ science. ‘The 
end of all prayer is to draw near to God, 
to find in Him our life and our strength. 
This is real prayer as distinguished from 
counterfeits, which are simply tense and 
burning desires of an earthly order. Now 
in this real prayer there is a power which 
can shape the future of man and of the 
world. In answer to such prayer, energies 
are renewed and we cease to be weak, 
dependent victims of this or that external 
force; inhibitions are swept away and powers 
of personality are enhanced. We can thus 
see to some extent how, through prayer, 
external and objective effects are produced. 
For the ascent of the mind to God does not 
exhaust itself in subjective states. “he mind 


1 Art. Gebet in Herzog’s ial (Ed. 1899). 
6] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


that is at peace with itself, the will that is 
made strong to suffer and to do, the heart 
that is sustained by hope and inspiration— 
these are not dead, mechanical things; they 
are living forces which ever tend to actualize 
themselves in a world without. They call 
into being a new series of events and circum- 
stances which otherwise would not have been. 
Prayer is thus the creator of great practical 
enterprises, of causes and movements, that 
may affect powerfully the destinies of indi- 
viduals and of nations. Can anyone doubt, 
for example, that the prayer of a Shaftes- 
bury or a Gladstone set in motion and filled 
with victorious energy influences that made 
for the social and spiritual enfranchisement 
of millions? 

Prayer in its highest form implies a certain 
attitude on the part of the praying soul to- 
wards all other souls, and this attitude tends 
to express itself in outer social and political 
forms. The God to whom we pray is no 
respecter of persons. ‘‘He maketh His sun 
to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust.” This uni- 
versalism of Divine Love which has regard 
to each individual in accordance with his 


[7] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


needs and capacities is itself an integral ele- 
ment in the perfection of the Deity. Hence 
so far as I approximate to the Divine ideal, 
I, in praying to God, shall view my fellows 
as He views them, shall ask for each what 
I ask for myself, power to realize his best 
self in all directions—to do the will of the 
common Father. But prayer of this order 
implies ideals that are essentially democratic 
in character. For I cannot sincerely pray for 
my brother man in these terms and at the 
same time refuse him any social or political 
or religious right; nor can I decline to do all 
that in me lies to create an environment 
favorable to the development of all his capac- 
ities and aptitudes. Prayer from this point 
of view may be described as a school of dis- 
cipline in the virtues that ought to char- 
acterize a democratic society.” 

But it is the purely spiritual effects of 
prayer that men will always prize most, for 
it is the soul and the soul’s welfare that are 
of permanent value while all else is transi- 
tory. Here is the argument against which no 
a priori, no scientific or philosophical dogma 


2This paragraph is quoted from my essay in “The 
Power of Prayer,” p. 67 (The Macmillan Company). 
[8] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


can avail anything. ‘Today we are all prag- 
matists; we verify our doctrines and beliefs 
by practical tests. Within the sphere of 
science pragmatism has no place: but in the 
moral and spiritual world we feel instinctively 
that it stands for a great truth. We make 
the great assumption that ultimately the good 
and true will be found to be one. Now when 
the pragmatic test is applied to prayer, we 
know the answer that is given. It is because 
of the practical benefits of prayer in the 
ethical and social spheres that men of the 
most diverse schools of thought, psycholo- 
gists, moralists, humanists, join in inviting us 
to practise this high exercise. A well-known 
American man of science holds that even 
those who are unable to rise to the heights 
of the thought that God is personal, but must 
conceive of Him as an impersonal energy 
permeating and upholding the universe are 
yet bound to pray, else something of the 
greatest value will pass out of their lives. 
‘All serious men,” he says, “whatever their 
intellectual training, must pray, not perhaps 
for material help, nor in expectation that the 
laws of the universe shall be changed at their 
request, not even primarily for strength to 


[9] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


live rightly and justly, but as the supreme 
effort of the human soul to know God.” 

What is, however, specially worth noting 
is that, by all who take an idealistic view of 
the world, prayer in some sense is now re- 
garded as indispensable to the integrity and 
development of the spiritual life. ‘This is 
still further confirmed by the tendency of 
certain groups which, unable to accept prayer 
as it is traditionally understood, substitute 
for it meditation or acts of self-dedication. 

When we turn to organized Christianity, 
we find that on its side many of the objec- 
tions to prayer which thoughtful men could 
not but feel, have been removed. Prayer has 
been undergoing a process of spiritualization. 
We no longer regard God, who is the true 
End of all things, as a means to an end, an 
instrument for the accomplishment of some 
earthly wish. Nor do we believe that sincere 
and reverent prayer will work for a violation 
of the regularities of the physical universe; 
for these regulations are themselves the 
revelation of the divine will. 

Prayer is not the moving of God’s will 
by ours, but the bringing of our soul into 
such a relation to God’s that the good which 

[10] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


He stands ready to give may find a channel 
through which it may pour itself into the soul. 
The man who truly prays does not desire to 
use God, but he does desire that God should 
use him. 

The truth is, that whether prayer is effica- 
cious or not, whether it touches any Reality 
beyond itself or not, there are situations, 
poignant and heart-searching, in which we 
must pray; and it is in such situations that 
prayer, as a genuine, vital experience, visits 
the lives of men. It varies as men vary. 
There are, however, great typical moments 
in the history of the soul where its function 
and meaning may be studied. Take for ex- 
ample the tragic experience of bereavement. 
One dearer to us than life passes into the 
great darkness and we find ourselves plunged 
into intolerable agony. ‘The soul is as a 
blinded creature beating its wings against the 
iron bars of fate. It grapples for a while 
with this hostile power that has invaded its 
peace, and it wastes its energies in vain yearn- 
ings for the grace of a day that is dead; or, 
perhaps in sullen defiance it proclaims the 
order of the world unjust and irrational and 
to be submitted to in contemptuous silence. 


[11] 


4A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


But no reconciliation can be achieved along 
either of these paths. Over the soul comes 
at times the awful sense of the irrevocable 
and irremediable. “Death is terrible for it 
is the end’’—these words sound like a knell 
announcing a final doom and the soul stares 
into a black pit of despair. It is then that 
a cry is wrung from the sufferer, a cry for 
help, for light, for some justification of the 
tragedy. ‘This cry marks the beginning of 
the upward movement of the soul, for now 
the sufferer glimpses the possibility that his 
sorrow is part of the order of human life, 
and seeks to find a method or a means by 
which he can acquiesce in this dark and dread- 
ful thing without sacrificing his spiritual in- 
tegrity. Prayer is here the power that heals 
or sets up a healing process. 

Or take the moral upheaval which comes 
through the experiences of guilt, or, as the 
older divines named it, ‘“‘the conviction of 
sin.” The commonplace routine of life may 
be broken at any moment by some word, or 
deed, or experience, perhaps the wounding 
of the affections, the awakening of conscience 
to the horror of some self-indulgence, the 
memory of a long-forgotten ethical appeal, 


[12] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


the apparent working of Divine judgment in 
national or international calamities—such are 
some of the incitements that may awaken the 
wrong-doer to a sense of the evil he has done. 
And as the awakened conscience is focussed 
on this or that sinful act or habit, the light 
that reveals the dark spot makes manifest 
also that the man is entangled in a network 
of inter-related tendencies, from which, try 
as he may, he cannot escape. 

Victor Hugo, in his Les Misérables, 
makes Jean Valjean undergo such a profound 
disturbance in his inner life. He had robbed 
the good bishop, whose forgiveness, how- 
ever, had powerfully affected him, breaking 
through the hard crust of hatred wherewith 
the actions of man had encased his soul for 
years. The force of habit, the brutal instinct 
resisted with one last effort and the ex-convict 
committed one last crime. Then there flashed 
on him the vision of his life and it appeared 
to him terrible. ‘He saw his soul and it 
appeared to him frightful.”’ Something gave 
way within him. He wept he knew not how 
long. A passerby, however, in the early 
morning, saw him kneeling on the pavement 
on front of the bishop’s house in the attitude 


[13] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


of prayer. It was the hour of his redemp- 
tion. ‘The pessimistic conclusion of a great 
mid-Victorian critic of religion was that 
“nothing is gained by disregarding the fact 
that there is no remedy for a bad heart.” 
The remark is profoundly true if the only 
resources at our disposal for the regeneration 
of man are those of science and philosophy. 
But not the preacher only, the student of 
human nature, a Meredith or a Stevenson 
or a Wells knows that, as the last-named 
writer has said: “Prayer is a power. Here 
God indeed can work miracles. A man with 
the light of God in his heart can defeat 
vicious habits, rise again combative and un- 
daunted after a hundred falls, escape from 
the grip of lusts, and revenges, make head 
against despair, thrust back the very onset 
of madness.” Amid the sombre and depress- 
ing thoughts which modern theories of 
heredity and circumstance provoke, is there 
not in this fact, abundantly and brilliantly 
verified by a myriad testimonies, a spiritual 
message of boundless hope and comfort to 
our age? ‘The negative attitude of those who 
have never sincerely experienced in this re- 
gion may be set aside as unworthy of atten- 


[14] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


tion, whereas on the other hand, it is the 
positive assertions of those who know by ob- 
servation and experience whereof they afhirm, 
that demand explanation at our hands. 
Surely in this as in other realms the expert 
has a right to be heard. 

Or take the consciousness of unrest, inde- 
cision, doubt, and fear of life, so character- 
istic of youth, with resultant unhappiness and 
impracticality. Faith and doubt as to any 
real meaning in existence struggle for the 
mastery. For a time the subject of this 
miserable conflict tries to absorb himself in 
work, deliberately sets aside the spiritual 
problem as insoluble and cultivates a kind of 
superficial cynicism, content to live on the 
lower level of materialistic satisfaction. But 
no permanent rest can here be found. He is 
haunted with a divine discontent; he is 
vaguely conscious of an ideal Presence that 
cannot be escaped. This inner division be- 
comes in time intolerable. Then the man 
turns to prayer and gradually the spiritual 
disorder gives place to clearness and insight, 
the meaning of life unfolds itself, and ex- 
periences that affect the whole after history 
of the individual fill the inner world with 

[15] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


light and peace. Must we not say that in 
prayer the soul comes into vital contact with 
ultimate Reality and shares in the blessedness 
and creative strength of that Reality? 

If prayer is a natural, spontaneous instinct 
of the soul, it is also, as Luther said, an art. 
Just as there are born painters, musicians, 
poets, so there are born pray-ers. It is, there- 
fore, not to be wondered at that many pray 
with the feeling that their prayers bring little 
or no help and, indeed, are hardly worth- 
while. ‘Their praying, like their religion, is 
a matter of tradition, with which they have 
never yet come personally to terms. And yet 
it may be doubted whether there are any who 
have received even an elementary religious 
training and yet cannot look back at this or 
that moment in the past when they really 
prayed. Who of us has not recalled, with 
wistful yearning, rare moments when under 
the pressure of some intolerable burden— 
some grief, perhaps, that threatened to wreck 
our life,—we wrestled with God in agony 
and would not let Him go until He blessed 
us; and now in duller and colder times we 
feel that if only we could regain the raptures 
of those great moments all would be well 


[16] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


with us and prayer no longer a painful effort, 
but the very life of the soul. And yet on 
deeper reflection we realize that not catas- 
trophe and upheaval of the inner world, but 
normal and steady growth, is the law of 
spiritual development, and the very difficul- 
ties which meet us when we pray are them- 
selves a challenge to our souls, and form, it 
may be, a needed discipline without which 
prayer could not have its perfect work. 

To begin with the difficulty involved in the 
very act of praying: one feels instinctively 
that there is a right and a wrong way, and 
that on our choice depends the success or 
failure of the effort. Here, as in every other 
exercise of our minds, we are subject to the 
psychological law of attention. We must at- 
tend to the matter in hand and refrain from 
attending to things that have no connection 
with our present interest. In the words of 
Christ, the great Master of the art of prayer, 
‘‘When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 
and when thou hast shut the door, pray to 
thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee 
openly.” * Here the law of attention is 


8 Matthew vi, 6. 


[17] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


formulated in terms at once simple and 
graphic. We are to shut the doors of the 
soul, and thus keep out the multitudinous 
impressions which tend to overwhelm and 
distract the mind. We must get alone with 
ourselves, with the interests about which we 
would pray, and with the God to whom we 
would pray; but how difficult this is only he 
can tell who has tried to do it. For a minute 
or two, perhaps, we succeed in thinking about 
the subject-matter of our prayer; then our 
minds fly off at a tangent, a thousand alien 
thoughts attract us, and we end by mechan- 
ically saying a prayer, which is a very dif- 
ferent thing from praying. Perhaps in 
despair we gradually give up the habit as 
beyond us. What, then, is the remedy, if 
remedy there be? I answer,—yjust as lack 
of will power is cured by willing, or poverty 
of thought by thinking, so the power of atten- 
tion is won by attending. ‘The truth is that 
behind the lack of attention there lurks often 
a deeper fault—lack of interest. We are not 
sufhciently interested in the affairs of the 
inner world, in our spiritual development, in 
our relation to God, and in our moral destiny. 
Were we overpoweringly interested in these 


[18] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


things, prayer would become a natural, spon- 
taneous outflow of the mind. In approaching, 
then, the act of prayer, we would do well, 
by quiet self-reflection, by brooding over the 
thought of Psalmist or prophet or teacher, 
to win a living conviction of the reality and 
paramount importance of the things of the 
soul. Once this conviction has been wrought 
in us, it will be harder for us not to pray 
than to pray; and as for the mental or moral 
effort involved in concentration of the mind 
on spiritual things, this becomes easier by 
repetition, like any other habit, and, like any 
other habit, it is achieved, as a rule, gradually 
and after many a fall. For if prayer in 
essence be the voluntary turning of the soul 
to God, it needs no long or elaborate use of 
words. It may be, as the hymn says, only 
‘the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear.” 
We can begin to acquire the art of prayer by 
learning, as it were, its alphabet. Scattered 
throughout the pages of the Bible and the 
great classics of Christian devotion will be 
found many a brief but pregnant phrase or 
sentence on which our spirits can wing 
their way to the heart of the Father in 
heaven. 
[19] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


“Create in me a clean heart, O God; 
And renew a right spirit within me.” 


“Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
I'ry me and know my thoughts; 
And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
And lead me in the way everlasting.” 


“O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” 
“Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” 


“Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
before Thee 

And am no more worthy to be called Thy 
son.” 


“O send out Thy light and Thy truth 
That they may lead me.” 


These brief sentences are typical of many 
at our disposal. Beginning with such as 
these, we can gradually extend the scope of 
our prayer until the habit becomes as essen- 
tial to our spiritual life as food and exercise 
are to the life of the body. 

So far I have spoken of prayer as an act 
of normal and self-possessed persons; but the 
question is often asked, “Are the methods 
of prayer suitable for the well, equally suit- 


[20] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


able for the sick?’ Take the case of a man 
suffering from the miseries of neurasthenia 
or psychasthenia; how can he pray, seeing 
that the very faculties involved in the act of 
praying are profoundly disturbed, and the 
effort of mental concentration is an impos- 
sible task? In such cases, where the central 
citadel of personality is invaded, it is obvious 
that a different method of prayer may be 
pursued. Constantly do I hear people, suf- 
fering from one or another of the numerous 
nervous maladies of our time, complain that 
they cannot pray, and that their imperfect 
attempts have brought no spiritual comfort. 
The reason is that, in trying to pray as they 
were accustomed to do in the days when they 
enjoyed good health, they put an insup- 
portable strain upon their psychic energies, 
with consequent increased disturbance and 
mental turmoil. Relaxation—not Concentra- 
tion—should be the motto of the nervously 
afflicted. The body should be put in the most 
restful and relaxed attitude; the mind should 
not be intensely concerned with any definite 
or concrete desire, but should be filled with 
a sense of the Divine Presence, with a feeling 
of perfect resignation to the Divine will. In 


[21] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


other words, the form of prayer which is to 
be commended to the suffering is what has 
been long known in the Church as “Practice 
of the Presence of God.”’ In the quietude 
of mind and calm of bodily feelings, which 
are possible in a state of relaxation, the soul 
is opened to revelations, sometimes richer 
and more significant than any vouchsafed in 
times of perfect health. It is told of that 
saintly woman of the fourteenth century, 
Julian of Norwich, that in a time of severe 
sickness she received a revelation in the 
strength of which she was able to live for 
many years afterwards, though the revelation 
itself was not fully made clear till a much 
later time. The explanation she gives in the 
language of the mystics: “ ‘Wouldst thou 
learn thy Lord’s meaning in this thing? 
Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who 
showed it thee? Love. What showed He 
thee ? Love. Wherefore showed it He? For 
Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn 
and know more in the same. But thou shalt 
never know nor learn therein other things 
without end.’ Thus was I learned that Love 
was our Lord’s meaning.” * This story is 


4Inge: Studies of English Mystics, p. 77. 
[22] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


not without parallel in our own time. Cases 
have come to my knowledge of persons who 
have experienced in this form of prayer a 
sense of spiritual exaltation, a feeling of in- 
ward rest and satisfaction which played no 
small part in their eventual restoration to 
normal self-control. Of course, these ex- 
periences will be explained away by those 
who do not believe in the reality of a spiritual 
world, as self-created delusions. But a delu- 
sion does not create a high type of spiritual 
character, does not lead to profound views 
of God and of human life. We must believe 
that these things are the product of contact 
with the Spirit of truth and goodness. The 
whole question of prayer, in essence, resolves 
itself to this: Is there a God able to speak 
to the creatures He has made? If there 1s, 
but if He is unwilling so to speak, He can be 
no God worthy of reverence or even of a 
moment’s thought. If, however, He is both 
able and willing to speak, we ought surely to 
believe the men and women who say they 
have heard His voice. However great the 
difficulties which logic and common sense 
create, life itself will teach us that as the 
years pass and the shadows of dissolution, 


[23] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


sorrow, and death gather around us, hard as 
it may be to pray, it will be still harder not 
to pray. 

In the light of what has been ‘said, it would 
seem as though prayer were only a sign of 
human weakness, a confession of man’s im- 
potence as he faces the harsh necessities of 
experience. Now it is true that prayer is 
the expression of the soul’s dependence, but 
it is also the proof and test of man’s great- 
ness. ‘The act of praying,” says Coleridge, 
‘that is, praying with a total concentration 
of the faculties, is the very highest energy of 
which the human heart is capable.” And 
William James points out that our lives 
would be fresher and abler if only we would 
disregard the critical atmosphere in which we 
have been reared and let ourselves go in 
prayer. Not only so, but through prayer we 
gain the consciousness of reserve power, of 
an enlarged personality. We realize that 
our being is undergirded by a strength to 
which we can make appeal when fresh tasks 
challenge the will. He who has this con- 
sciousness fears no task, shrinks from no 
burden, despairs of no problem, and by the 
contagion of his strength nerves other souls 


[24] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


to achievements that seem impossible. In 
prayer it comes to pass that the paradox of 
St. Augustine is solved: ‘When my weak- 
ness comes from God, it becomes strength.” 

There are many who have abandoned the 
habit of prayer for this or that reason; the 
theology of earlier days is no longer ac- 
ceptable, or the pressure of life’s enslaving 
routine has crushed out the desire or, it may 
be, the soul has surrendered to the lure of a 
materialistic philosophy of life. Yet these 
persons feel the poverty of their inner world 
and are depressed with a profound dissatis- 
faction. They need to pray and yet they can- 
not. I would suggest that such persons would 
do well not to attempt to express their desires 
in words at the present stage of their experi- 
ence, but to devote a few minutes daily to 
the exercise of calling their souls to silence 
and stillness in the presence of the infinite 
Mystery of the universe. We may interpret 
this Mystery in manifold ways, but the con- 
scious realization that we belong to It, and 
are bound up with It, will exercise a steady- 
ing, enlarging, and ennobling effect upon 
mind and heart. Account for it as we may, 
this is an indisputable psychological fact, as 

[25] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


all who have made the experiment unite in 
afirming. 

Today men are seeking a_ genuinely 
spiritual basis for civilization. There is much 
to encourage them in the search. Recent 
philosophy is at one with the teaching of reli- 
gion in afirming the existence and nearness 
of a world greater than that which meets the 
outer senses. We poor mortals in the process 
of evolution, stumbling, falling, guessing, 
now visited by gleams of a sudden intuition, 
now plunged in darkness, ignorant of our 
powers, slowly discovering them, exploring, 
watching, listening, we are not alone in our 
earthly wanderings, we are already, though 
we may not be always conscious of the fact, 
citizens of a higher world. From that higher 
world, as a St. Paul, a Pascal, a Swedenborg 
have believed, there flash at rare moments 
messages, hints, fragmentary revealings of a 
reservoir of life and light and love. This 
spiritual world is not closed to us. In the 
silence we can hear the divine Voice and dis- 
tinguish it from the voices of our weaker self 
and of the world without. Hence prayer is 
a school of spiritual education in which he 
who prays advances from day to day in the 


[26] 


PRAYER: ITS MEANING AND VALUE 


knowledge of the best things of life. In- 
herited prejudices die out, new and large aims 
are revealed; a sense of brotherhood is born, 
larger ideals for self and for the world are 
gradually formed, and the forces making for 
a new and better social order are generated. 
‘Prayer reminds us,” says Amiel, “‘of pardon 
and duty. It says to us: “Thou art loved— 
love: thou hast received—give; thou must 
die—labor while thou canst; overcome anger 
by kindness, and overcome evil with good.’ ” 


[27] 





I 


For VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 





FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 
I 


PRAYER: For GRACE TO Pray ARIGHT 


g TERNAL God, who art the Beginning and the 

End of all, who abidest forever and in whom 
we abide; grant that our prayer to Thee may not 
be from dull use and wont but because it is our 
part to confess all that lies heavy upon our souls, 
because we hunger and thirst for the things which 
are above. Help us so to ask that we receive that 
which we have not. Help us to take freely of Thy 
gifts that we may nourish the seeds in us of faith 
and beauty. Cleanse our vision that we may see 
Thine ever-open door, and the riches of a more 
abundant life, freely given us of Thee. Kindle in us 
the desire to live in harmony with our prayers, in 
equal reverence for ourselves and others, in a spirit 
of sacrifice ever ready to spend and be spent, if only 
we may serve the humblest of Thy children. Amen. 


READING: ConpucT REACTS UPON CHARACTER 


E become what we habitually do. Our con- 
duct registers itself in the bent of our char- 


[31] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 





acter and the quality of our spiritual fibre; and 
there it is forever judged and forever rewarded or 
punished, as the case may be, by a tribunal whose 
judgments are all unerringly just. If we do wrong 
we weaken our will, we deaden our moral sense, we 
cloud our spiritual vision. ‘That is our punishment. 
If we do right we strengthen our will, we quicken 
our moral sense, we clarify our spiritual vision. 
That is our reward. Nor need we go far to find 
opportunities for self-discipline which leads to self- 
transcendence. 


The trivial round, the common task, 
Will furnish all we need to ask, 
Room to deny ourselves, a road 

To bring us daily nearer God. 


Room to outgrow ourselves let us rather say. The 
word deny is too purely negative. We say No to 
the soul only that it may learn to say Yes to a 
high appeal. From the point of view of spiritual 
evolution the importance of the homely, humdrum 
necessity of everyday life cannot be overestimated. 
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say all moral evil 
is resolvable in the last resort into selfishness, and 
all moral goodness into unselfishness. . . . In the 
trivial round and the common task these combatants 
find a battlefield which clears itself anew from day 
to day. 


[32] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


II 


PRAYER: For THE KNOWLEDGE OF Gop’s WILL 


GOD, by whom the meek are guided in judg- 

ment and light riseth up from darkness for 
the godly; Grant us in our doubts and uncertainties 
the grace to ask what Thou wouldest have us to do; 
that the spirit of wisdom may save us from false 
choices, and that in Thy light we may see light, 
and in Thy straight path may not stumble; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


READING: "THE CHRISTIAN [DEAL Is A POWER 
AS WELL AS A Law 


NLY those who seek to direct their lives ac- 

cording to the Christian law can gain a firm 
grasp of Christian truth. Only those who strive to 
live in the Spiritual Order and to make its precepts 
real in their practical activities, can gain an abiding 
certainty or a true understanding of it.. It cannot 
be known from without by inquiry, but only from 
within by practice. But not less important is the 
converse truth that such practice is only possible in 
the full degree by those who have learned to rest 
in the inner memory and peace of the Spiritual 
Order. If there is essential truth in the thought 


[33] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


of a “Will to Believe,” not less is there in that of 
a “Faith to Will.” The highest energy is the 
privilege of those who themselves “have entered into 
the beginning of peace.” . . . It is he who from a 
higher sphere draws energy and inspiration for the 
tasks that meet him in the astral world, and who 
is able to bring something of the calm of the Spiritual 
Order into the confusion of the natural, who shows 
the truest mastery over the world. Because his 
deeper life and citizenship is elsewhere, he is not 
less but more effective as a citizen of the visible 
polity to which he belongs. 


Kil 


PRAYER: For GRACE TO BEAR AND FORBEAR 


UR Father: Purge out of every heart the lurk- 

ing grudge. Give us grace and strength to 
forbear and to persevere. Give us grace to accept 
and to forgive offences. Forgetful ourselves, help 
us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. 
Give us courage, gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare 
to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless 
us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. Give 
us the strength to encounter that which is to come, 
that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, 
temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, 


[34] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving 
one to another. For Christ’s sake. Amen. 


READING: [HOSE WHo CoMMIT THEMSELVES 
To Gop Have NoruHinc To FEAR 


O one gets true peace, or has really got to the 

true foundation of things until, as far as his 
own dignity is concerned, he is in a position to say, 
you can wrong God and you can wrong Society; 
and it may be my duty to stand up for God and 
for Society; but me, as far as I am concerned, you 
cannot provoke. ‘That is the ideal to which we 
have to attain. ‘That is the meekness which is ap- 
propriate to sinners like ourselves who know what 
we deserve, who in a general review of life, can 
seldom feel that we are suffering unmerited wrong; 
but it is the meekness also of the sinless and righteous 
one. . . . Ihe meek who ever committed themselves 
to Him who judgest righteously, have nothing to 
fear. “Friend, come up higher’ is all that is before 
them. They will simply, in steady and royal ad- 
vance, enter into the full heritage of that which 
men keep back from them, but God has in store 
for them. . . . The world says: “Stand up for your 
rights; make the most of yourself; don’t let any 
man put upon you.” And so we are always stand- 
ing on our dignity, always thinking ourselves in- 


[35] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


sulted, imposed upon. ‘Blessed are the meek,” says 
our Lord, “for they shall inherit the earth.” 


IV 
PRAYER: For Joy 


LMIGHTY God, grant that I may awake 

to the joy of this day, finding gladness in 
all its toil and difficulty and in its pleasure and 
success, in all its failures and sorrow; teach me to 
throw open the windows of my life, that I may 
look always away from myself, and behold the need 
of the world: give me the will and strength to 
bring the gift of Thy gladness to others of Thy 
children, that with them I may stand to bear the 
burden and heat of the day and offer Thee the 
praise of work well done: through Jesus Christ 


our Lord. Amen. 


READING: No MAN Can TAKE FROM You YOUR 
Joy IN Gop 


Gey a man have such joy in his character, in 

being the thing he is, that no other man can 
take his joy from him? Just as soon as we ask 
ourselves that question, how our imperfections and 


[36] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


sins start up before us! . . . What idlest chatterer 
cannot pluck away our self-satisfaction, and steal 
the last trace of joy in our characters. And yet 
with all this true, it is not all the truth. A block 
of marble or wood laying alone upon the hill-top 
may be ugly and uninteresting. ‘The same block 
of wood or marble brought into a sculptor’s work- 
shop, though his hands may not have touched it yet, 
or may have only rudely blocked out his design, 
may be a thing to reverence, may stir our imagina- 
tion and our love. I am a poor, weak, wicked man. 
Any small joy in myself which I have been able 
to conceive, your well-deserved scorn can steal from 
me in an instant. But now suppose that Christ 
takes me into His hands. I am a poor dull block 
still, but I am His. Is not the whole thing changed? 
Now there is a joy in character which is not present 
consciousness but certain prophecy, which is not self- 
conceit but trust in the Creator’s hands whose power 
I feel upon me. Now let the shrewd critic come 
and find his fault with me; now let him point out 
all the stains and flaws which his keen eye can see. 
I am not scornful of his criticism. I welcome it 
for it will help me. But it no longer makes me 
wretched. I am in Christ. In hope of what he 
shall make of me, is making of me, my joy abides. 


[37] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


PRAYER: For SprritruAL REALITY 


@* Father and my God, lead me and guide me 

on the dim and perilous path of life. Too 
long have I directed my own steps, too long have 
I lived without Thy wisdom stumbling in the dark- 
ness because I did not love Thy light. But now 
I desire nothing, I need nothing but to know that 
Thou art in me and I am in Thee. Let the fire 
of Thy love consume the false shows wherewith 
my weaker self has deceived me. Make me real as 
thou art real. Inspire me with a passion for 
righteousness and likeness to the Man of Nazareth 
that I may love as He loved, and find my joy as 
He found His joy in being and doing good. Only 
when, like Him, I am perfectly united to Thee, 
shall my life be truly alive. 

Dwell Thou within me to give me His courage, 
His tenderness, His simplicity, to transform my own 
poor shadow-self into the likeness of His truth and 
strength. Amen. 


READING: THE GREAT EXPERIENCES IN LIFE ARE 
THOSE WHICH Gop Works IN Us 


The great things God does for us are not the 
things which He does outside of us—His 


[38] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


providential guidance, deliverance from danger and 
the like, the gifts that life is always bringing to us 
so wonderfully. ‘The great things God does for us 
are done within us, in the effects of those experiences 
upon our natures. Do our experiences pass within 
to do the work which God’s Spirit can enable them 
to do, leaving us when they have gone with some 
new grace of courage, some larger vision of God, 
some deeper sympathy with man, some surer mastery 
of life? Or do they only pass us by, recording in 
our memories the fact that they have come to us, 
just as a passing trifler would scrawl his name upon 
a wayside rock? ‘The test of what we are getting 
out of life is its reactions on our souls. An old 
man once said to a youth setting out upon the road 
—‘“Remember life will either soften your heart, or 
it will harden it, or else it will break it.” ‘There is 
much truth in his discernment; and every kind of 
experience has this varied power. The question of 
life’s success is not what we have made of it, but 
what it has made of us! What kind of men and 
women have we become in the contact with life? 
What kind of souls have we developed through the 
stress and strain? Are our natures being developed, 
our hearts being softened, our minds growing clearer 
about the great things, our spirits entering more 
deeply into the living peace of Christ? Is the vision 
of Christ growing finer and more radiant year by 
year, as the face of Beatrice became to Dante, the 


[39] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


higher he ascended toward Paradise? . . . These 
are two great experiences, the enduring experiences, 
beside which the things which merely touch our 
outward life are but débris, of no more real or 
lasting value than the trifles we bring back from 
a foreign tour to keep in our cupboards for memen- 
toes of the past. ‘The great things of life are the 
abiding influences wrought into our natures by the 
gracious discipline of God. 


VI 
PRAYER: For THE DoING oF Gop’s WILL 


LMIGHTY God, our Heavenly Father, in 
whom we live and move and have our being, 
who hast created us for Thyself so that we can 
find rest only in Thee; Grant unto us purity of 
heart and strength of purpose, so that no selfish 
passion may hinder us from knowing Thy will and 
no weakness from doing it, that in Thy light we 
may see light clearly and in Thy service find perfect 
freedom through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen. 


READING: DISCIPLINE IS A NECESSITY 


UR social Gospel is incomplete. It does not 
embrace the full Christian doctrines of the 


[40] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


body. ‘That men cannot rise to their full spiritual 
destiny while living under degrading physical con- 
ditions is only one-half of the truth about the body, 
and—with all due respect to social workers—not 
the most important half. The other half of the 
truth is that no man who neglects bodily discipline 
—whether he be a well-paid artisan, gorging him- 
self with coarse food, or an aristocrat of culture 
choosing his refined physical pleasures with artistic 
restraint—can enter the kingdom which God has 
prepared for him. Discipline is not merely a matter 
of refraining from excess. As in the things of the 
spirit, so in the things of the body, Christian dis- 
cipline means the uprooting of self-gratification and 
self-will. ‘The refined man who elects to have simple 
meals and simple clothing and who chooses each 
course and each garment with no other thought than 
his own health, taste and predilictions, is as undis- 
ciplined and as really given over to the flesh, as the 
gourmand and the ludicrously arrayed... . 
Today, when the ordeal of war has proved so 
much of our gold to be dross, not a few of those 
who were insistent that a comfortable income and 
luxurious surroundings were essential to the produc- 
tion of good work, are realizing that what they 
thought the hall-mark of high culture was in reality 
the evidence of a vulgarized taste. Once more men 
are casting behind them what seemed to them to 
make life fine and free and in doing so, discover 


[41] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


that they are merely discarding a hampering load 
of rubbish. Renunciation instead of being decried 
as a part of a subterranean conspiracy against life, 
is coming to be recognized as the key to man’s true 
kingdom, the gate into life’s treasure-house. 


VII 
PRAYER: For Power To SERVE HUMANITY 


LOVE that passeth knowledge, come into my 

heart with all Thy fulness, that my heart may 
be made gentle with Thy gentleness. Grant me to 
bear others’ burdens that I may cease to live for 
myself. Come Thou in that I may cease to be my 
own. Let me share with Thee in the bearing of 
the sin and sorrow of the vast world, let me take 
up the crosses of the laboring and the heavy-laden. 
Fill me with Thyself that I may be emptied of 
all pride. Fill me with Thyself that I may become 
the servant of humanity. Amen. 


READING: F. W. RospertTson HAs Put on REcorp 
TEN Goop RESOLUTIONS 


my? try to be thoroughly poor in spirit, meek, and 
to be ever ready to be silent when others speak. 


[42] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


To learn from everyone. 
To try to feel my own insignificance. 


To believe in myself and the powers with which I 
am entrusted. 


To try to make conversation more useful. 


To try to despise the principle of the day,—‘‘every 
man his own trumpeter.” 


To speak less of self and to think less. 
To contend one by one against evil thoughts. 


To try to fix my thoughts in prayer without dis- 
traction. 


To watch over a growing habit of uncharitable 
judgment. 


VIII 
PRAYER: For THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST 


1 eee help me to show towards my fellow-men 
that kindness which I have so often craved 
from them. May I think of my neighbor not as 


[43] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


my rival who would undo me, but as my brother 
who needs me. Give me the compassion of Jesus 
that I may never be able to turn coldly from any 
man who needs me. Make me quick to hear the 
cry of suffering. ‘Turn my feet toward the house 
of sorrow. Grant me to know the joy of carrying 
hope to hearts that have been long strangers to hope. 
I remember how lonely I have been in sickness; 
help me to relieve the loneliness of the sick. I 
remember how often I have longed for the touch 
of a friendly hand: help me to relieve the heart- 
hunger of the neglected. Amen. 


READING: We QOucut To SEARCH FOR Goop 
NEVER FOR Evin IN MEN 


E ourselves, being ennobled, see noble things, 

and loving, find out love. Little touches of 
goodness, love and courage in men, which, formerly 
looking for perfection, we passed over, now attract 
us like flowers on a dusty highway. We take them 
as keys to the character and door after door flies 
open to us. “The man reveals the treasures of his 
heart. We find aspiration, penitence, tenderness, 
in those we thought grovelling, hard and selfish. 
We trust men, we throw ourselves upon the good 
in them, and they become better, now that they are 
not suspected of being evil. Driven by our new 


[44] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


principle to seek for good and not for evil, and to 
find it in all, we take notice of ordinary men whom 
we have passed over, and it is with an exquisite 
surprise that we become conscious of the vast amount 
of daily sacrifice done by common men and women, 
by those whom we call “dull,” by those who have 
to fight a hard battle for the poor. ... Let the 
Lamp of Love shine with tender brightness on your 
home, on your friends, on your society, on the com- 
fortable and the poor, on ignorant and wise, and 
on your enemies. Let its light be like the sunshine 
of God which falls on the good and on the evil. 


IX 
PRAYER: For STILLNESS 


TERNAL Father, in whom is no variableness 

neither shadow of turning, whose stillness is 
around within us, to repose in whose presence is 
sweetest joy and refreshment; Enfold us in this in- 
effable peace which is Thine own unchanging will. 
Still our disquietude, soothe our restlessness, say to 
our hearts “Peace, be still.’ Brood over us, within 
us, Spirit of Perfect Peace, so that outwardly we 
may reflect the inner stillness of our souls, and that 
we may bear change, distraction, sudden assaults of 
temptation and disappointment, and still be found 


[45] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


close to Thee enfolded in Thy loving care. Let us 
be undisturbed and in true quietness fulfil the calling 
wherewith Thou hast called us. Amen. 


READING: ‘TRUE SILENCE Is THE Girt oF Gop 


RUE silence is not the work of men. We do 

not make it. It is God’s gift; it is the at- 
mosphere of His presence enfolding the souls of 
those who enter into its mysterious stillness. We 
may withdraw from the world’s jangle and strife 
and by deliberate act shut out its clamant demands, 
but we cannot command the silence which is from 
above. It is ours when God comes forth and rolls 
away the things of time and sense that we may 
receive Him and listen to what He has to teach, 
the truth which is above all speech in its revelation 
of the wonder of the unseen and the hidden purposes 
of life. 

“We do not know each other yet; we have not 
yet dared to be silent.” ‘That was the cry of one 
who felt love’s unsatisfied knowledge, and recog- 
nized that it could never be gained until speech 
had given place to the truer, deeper revelation of 
silence. It may be that many devout people have 
not yet attained the highest knowledge of the God 
they earnestly, yet ignorantly worship. They are 
too self-centred, or they think only how by their 


[46] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


cries they may call Him to their aid, when, if they 
would but quietly wait, they would find Him near 
already, waiting to manifest Himself. They know 
nothing of the speech of silence, in its direct dis- 
closure of God, the revelation of Himself and of 
themselves in the deep quietness of His Presence. 

To enter into this silence is no easy task. It 
requires the whole effort of a man. All his powers 
of will, thought, and affection must be exercised 
before he can share it. The mere cessation of work 
is not enough; restraint of speech does not secure 
it; only those who resign themselves to the mys- 
teries of the Presence before which we all live, enter 
into it. They cannot be true initiates until they 
listen to its strange searching speech, and respond to 
it in the language of the soul which is beyond the 
power of words. In the silence we learn the secret 
of fellowship with God and with those whom we 
can no longer see. 


Xx 
PRAYER: For LicHt AND LOVE AND Joy 


HOLY Light of God, 

Ever radiant through despair and death, 
Ever undimmed and splendid in the darkness, 
Shine Thou today in this dark heart of mine. 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


O holy Love of God, 

Dying for our life, 

Shining eternally for our perfection, 

Work ‘Thou today in this weak heart of mine. 


O holy Joy of God, 

Sharing the gladness of the least of all Thy creatures, 
Taking delight in mortals in all sweet human beauty, 
Be jubilant today in this dull heart of mine. Amen. 


READING: SHARING THE Pains or Gop, WE ALSO 
SHARE His Joy 


"@ UST as when we love some one, there is dis- 

covered to us something of the value which this 
human individual has for God, so in the horror 
caused by some revelation of evil we enter, tem- 
porarily and according to the limit of our small 
human heart, into the pain of God. ... Painful 
tension is the natural result of contact between a 
Christlike mind and certain things in this world 
of ours. ... Just as we believe that the pain of 
God is only a partial or transitional aspect of 
Reality, that the whole, of which the pain is a neces- 
sary part, is transcendent joy, “the glory of the 
sum of things,” so surely are those who are called 
to share the pain of God meant to enter into God’s 
triumph. ‘The prayer beginning on the note of dis- 


[48] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


tress may end—sooner or later, if it is the prayer 
of faith, must end—on the note of confidence and 
calm. Such, if we may look at all into the mystery 
of Gethsemane, was the passage of the Divine- 
Human mind during that momentous hour—at first 
the agony, and in the end the strong and victorious 
acceptance, “Thy will be done.” 


AL 
PRAYER: For THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT 


pean of purity and grace: how can we thank 

Thee for the glory of those early visions and 
for Thy rebukes of our low ambitions? O gird 
us, we pray Thee, that we may no longer fear that 
which is difficult nor scorn that which is ordinary. 
Let our common task glow again with the light 
of holy purpose, and give us some part in Thy work 
which forever abides. 

Conform our lives with Thine eternal will. Give 
us grace to cast ease aside and to act in the day 
of our opportunity. Let no past grandeur chill our 
ardor and no idle dream of the future arrest us in 
the duty of today; and if we need the discipline 
of failures and sorrow, help us to be refined and 
not consumed by the flame. 

We acknowledge every movement of Thy Spirit 
within us to create and to release our best purposes. 


[49] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


And when we fall from our enthusiasms may we 
be still with Thee. May we clasp hands with duty 
as with a dear friend, and so may we have the joy 
in Jesus in whose name we offer ourselves anew to 


Thee. Amen. 


READING: SHALL We Not Catt Our Ex- 
PERIENCES OF ADVERSITY Goop? 


HAT depends on what price we are ready to 

pay for deeper insight into the meaning of the 
world, for awakened hearts, for greater consequent 
ability to serve our comrades, and for unfaltering 
courage to further meet the demands of life. Some 
evil, some misfortune is inevitable. Nothing that 
we can do, can change it or can drive it away. It 
is, aS we say, as inevitable as a chance of Fate, 
but rather we should say, it is the will of God that 
we drink the bitter cup to the deep dregs. If we 
rebel and fight against it (as at first from human 
nature we can hardly help doing) we miss its bless- 
ing; and so it is, if we try to escape from it by 
flight or yield to it in weakness. Our path in the 
face of such inevitable ills is a dauntless acquiescence. 
Who knows, after all, what chains may be breaking 
which all unconsciously we had forged for ourselves, 
or how through calamity and acquiescence our souls 
may be freed to live on those higher spiritual levels 


[50] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


to which we were blind in our unawakened hours 
of ease? On these levels a light is shining 


“A light that never was on sea or land, 
The consecration and the poet's dream.” 


XII 
PRAYER: For AN UNTROUBLED SPIRIT 


GOD), refresh and gladden my spirit; purify 
my heart; illumine my power. I lay all my 
affairs in Thy hands; Thou art my Guide and my 
Refuge. I will not be sorrowful and grieved any 
more. I will be a happy, joyful being. I will not 
be over-anxious any more. I will not let trouble 
harass me any longer. I will not dwell on the 
unpleasant things of my life. 
O God, Thou art kinder to me than I am to 
myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord. Amen. 


READING: “THE SECRET OF PEACE LIES IN PUT- 
TING First “I HINGS FIRST 


UR Lord, in his character of spiritual physician, 
advises men how to defend themselves against 

the disease of anxiety, from whatever cause arising, 
and suggests remedies to those who have already 


[51] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


fallen victims to this most insidious and painful com- 
plaint. He calls experience to witness that a man’s 
life does not consist in the abundance of his pos- 
sessions, and he argues that for those who believe 
in a good God it is wholly illogical to regard 
themselves as drifting among nameless dangers. If 
we would be at peace, He said, we must not cul- 
tivate “a doubtful mind.” It is characteristic of 
our Lord’s teaching that He never said one word 
to discourage the search for truth, nor against the 
nobler ambitions whose fruition His parables suggest 
may not be over at death. A desire for benevolent 
power He seems to have regarded as a desire belong- 
ing to the eternal side of man’s nature; but for 
that worldly ambition which He summarized as a 
perpetual distress of mind consequent upon the con- 
sideration of food and clothes, He has nothing but 
condemnation. Such a state of distress is, He said, 
altogether unworthy of a religious man. The Gen- 
tiles sought after such things—the Romans, that is, 
whose spirituality was so much less developed than 
that of the Jews; but whoever would obtain peace 
should resolutely keep the just proportions of life 
in mind—should let great considerations have the 
first, should seek first the Kingdom of God and His 
righteousness, and regard smaller things as addi- 
tional, not essential. 


[52] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


XIII 
PRAYER: For FORGIVENESS 


| me lites I am not worthy to be called Thy 

son. I have lived a blind life; ignorant and 
foolish have been my days. But now Thy Spirit 
has opened my eyes, and has set in order before 
me all the sins and shortcomings of the past. Now 
I see myself, not with the clearness of Thy all- 
searching vision, but in the dim twilight of my own 
thought. Forgive all the evil I have done by 
thought, word and deed. Restore to me a sense of 
Thy nearness and Thy grace. I ask for no miracle, 
no violation of Thy holy laws which bind sorrow 
to sin, penalty to wrong. Only speak the healing 
and reconciling word, deepen my contrition, fortify 
my will, touch me with Thy love, and hereafter I 
will serve Thee with undivided mind, and if it may 
be, do something for Thy sake that may be pleasing 
in Thy sight. Cast me not away from Thy service, 
but be patient with me a little longer. And this 
I ask in Christ’s name. Amen. 


READING: BLESSED Hope For THE PENITENT 


VEN omnipotence cannot make what has been 
not to have been. The guilt, the moral wrong- 
ness of sin is likewise unalterable; nothing can 


[53] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


relieve it by a single shade of God’s reprobation; 
whatever enormity belonged to it at the time of its 
commission cleaves inexorably to it forever. 

The self-propagating power of sin never dies save 
with sin itself. No expiation can affect the cor- 
rupting energy of sin; for this is its essential nature, 
and cannot be severed from it even by the Almighty. 

But though the corrupting energy of sin cannot 
be destroyed so long as sin exists, yet the cause may 
be destroyed, the sin itself, and herein we have the 
sole, yet most blessed, hope for the sinful man. ‘The 
fact that sin has been committed is unalterable; the 
exact measure of its inherent guilt may never be 
diminished; but the principle of evil, the sense alike 
of the evil act, the guilt and the evil energy may 
itself be destroyed; also instead of love of evil there 
can be willing devotion to goodness and truth; in- 
stead of remoteness from God, there can be richness 
of life with Him. . . . There is only one way of 
escaping the doom of the sinful soul. If sin be 
expelled from the soul, the death which issues solely 
from it is prevented. ‘This is the only salvation for 
man,—salvation from sin itself, not from its con- 
sequences, either here or hereafter. “There are saints 
that shall enter the kingdom of heaven halt and 
maimed, thus carrying with them the fruits of their 
sin unto the presence of the Eternal; and which 
of us shall not? God’s forgiveness does not alter 
our past, nor save us from the consequences of that 


[54] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


fact, but kills outright within us the evil that is 
present. 


XIV 


PRAYER: For REFRESHMENT AMID THE ‘TRIALS 
OF LIFE 


OD of our life, there are days when the burdens 

we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us 
down; when the road seems dreary, the skies grey 
and threatening; when our lives have no music in 
them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have 
lost their courage. Flood the path with light, we 
beseech Chee; turn our eyes to where the skies are 
full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; 
give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and 
saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that 
we may be able to encourage the souls of all who 
journey with us on the road of life, to Thy honor 
and glory. Amen. 


READING: —Jo BEAR THE YOKE OF CHRIST IS THE 
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 


EAR me, my friends: I dare not say I know 
»" there is a Father. I dare not even say I 
think: I can only say with my whole heart I hope 


[55] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


we have a Father in heaven, but Jesus says He 
knows. Am I to say He does not know? Can I, 
who know so much I would gladly have otherwise 
in myself, imagine His being less honest than I am? 
If He tells me, He knows I am dumb and listen. 
One I know: there is, outweighs a whole creation 
of voices crying each I know not, therefore, there 
is not. What does He mean by Take my yoke upon 
you and learn of me? He means, ““Take upon you 
the yoke I wear; learn to do as I do, who submit 
everything and refer everything to the will of my 
Father, yea, have my will only in the carrying out 
of His: be meek and lowly of heart and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls.” With all the grief of 
humanity in His heart, in the face of the doubt 
that awaited Him, He yet says, “For my yoke, the 
yoke I wear, is easy, the burden I bear is light.” 
What makes that yoke easy—that burden light? 
That it was the will of the Father. 


XV 


PRAYER: For SINCERITY 


GOD of truth, we would be upright in all 
things; keep us, we entreat Thee, from guile 
and hypocrisy. Neither in our approach to Thee, 
nor in our dealings with our fellowmen may there 


[56] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 





be any secret impiety or covert unbelief. Make us 
simple and sincere, lovers of the just balance, fearers 
of Thy eternal and unswerving law. Amid the 
compromises of the world, keep us loyal to con- 
science; among those who follow after success, make 
us faithful servants of the Cross. Confirm and 
hearten, we pray Thee, all brave souls who are set 
in the high places of the field. Grant them to be 
more than conquerors; and let every humble servant 
of Thine, in poverty or reproach, find courage and 
strength in the faith which is itself the victory that 
overcometh the world. Amen. } 


READING: WE BECOME LIKE THOSE WHOM WE 
HABITUALLY ADMIRE 


pee events change men, much more persons, no 

man can meet another on the street without 
making some mark upon him. We say we exchange 
words when we meet; what we exchange is souls. 
And when intercourse is very close and very fre- 
quent, so complete is this exchange that recognizable 
bits of one soul begin to show in the other’s nature, 
and the second is conscious of a similar and growing 
debt to the first. ‘This mysterious approximation 
of the souls; who has not witnessed? .. . It is the 
law of Influence that we become like those whom 
we habitually admire. Through all the range of 


[57] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


history, of literature and biography this law pre- 
vails. Men are all mosaics of other men. ‘There 
was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a savor 
of Jonathan about David. Jean Valjean in the 
masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop Bienvenu 
risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact. 
George Eliot’s message to the world was that men 
and women make men and women. ‘The Family, 
the cradle of mankind, has no meaning apart from 
this. Society itself is nothing but a rallying-point 
for those omnipotent forces to do their work. On 
the doctrine of Influence, in short, the whole vast 
pyramid of humanity is built. 


XVI 
PRAYER: For THE BRINGING IN OF THE KINGDOM 


ATHER of all men, King of the Kingdom 

of Heaven, supreme and perfect love, in unison 
with all my brothers and sisters who in all ages 
have worshipped Thee and yearned to see hy 
sovereignty acknowledged over all the earth, I adore 
Thee. . Cleanse my heart from all selfishness, purify 
me that I may take my part in bringing ‘Thy king- 
dom among men; unite us in all love to one another, 
and in the hatred of all that is evil. By Thy Holy 
Spirit in us, hasten the day when there shall be 


[58] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


no more sighing, no more tears; take away from 
us the love of Mammon; help us to sacrifice our- 
selves for others’ good: revive in all disciples of 
our Master His holy indignation at all injustice 
and His innocent life in the midst of sin. For His 
sake. Amen. 


READING: "THE REVELATION OF Gop IN CHRIST 
IS THE TRUE GROUND OF HUMAN BROTHERHOOD 


E say that Christianity can bring about a true 

fraternity among men. But this is an ellip- 
tical mode of speech, and may be a misleading one. 
Christianity, as a mere system of doctrines or prac- 
tices, will never make men brothers. By Chris- 
tianity we must understand the reconciliation of 
mankind to God in Christ; we must understand 
the power and privilege of saying: “Our Father— 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” No 
motive or set of motives will bind us together; He 
binds us who has given His Son for us all, that 
we might not live forever in separation from Him 
and from each other. ‘There is another which is, 
in practice, even more fatal. We are apt to say 
“these large schemes of the universe, which we hear 
so much of, are vain; what good can come of them? 
Let us try to do our duty each in his own sphere.” 
An excellent resolution, but too often adopted only 


[59] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


in spite and therefore leading to no result. We 
exalt the little for the sake of disparaging the large; 
presently we grow weary of not doing more; we 
fly back to great schemes which we have pronounced 
abortive: yet because we find them so, we do noth- 
ing. ‘This prayer meets us at each point and will 
not allow us to escape by one pretext or another. 
It does not treat the projects of men for universal 
societies, unbounded pantisocracies, as too large. It 
overreaches them all with these words, “as in 
Heaven.” It opens to us the vision of a society in 
which angels and archangels, and the spirits of the 
just made perfect, are citizens, and in which we too 
have an inheritance. It does not look upon any 
homely individual task of self-sacrifice as insig- 
nificant. “So upon earth’ meets every such case 
and reminds us that the lowliest tasks beseem the 
disciples of Him who “took upon Him the form of 
a servant and was found in fashion as a man.” 


XVII 


PRAYER: For A SPIRIT OF CONFIDENCE AMID 
THE MYSTERIES OF THE WorRLD 


iw ORD of all, who knowest the painful mystery 
Thou art to us often, who knowest how this 
world of Thine often staggers and confuses us, and 


[60] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


who hast made it thus; pity our blindness, be patient 
with our agitation, and comfort us with the comfort 
of the Spirit which silently witnesseth with our 
spirit, and strengthen us to labor in the dark by 
the light of the little lamp that shines until the 
day star arrives and dawn is in our hearts. Lead 
us and create in us toward the most choice be- 
havior to which we can attain, fostering in us the 
heart by which the life is purified; seeking that our 
work be always true, however humble, and that in 
us and through us others may find help and no 
hindrance. ‘Teach us so to mingle with all sorts 
and conditions of men that the best in them may 
be made manifest. Strengthen us to be brave and 
calm and patient in adversity and amid fulness of 
bread to possess our souls free from selfishness and 
pride. May we live in Thee who art our wealth 
and our peace. Amen. 


READING: Our Primary NeEep Is For LIGHT 


8 A ie struggle for light, with its wide fellowship 

and high enthusiasms will displace the struggle 
for power, with its mean passions, its monstrous 
illusions and its contemptible ideals. Instead of 
Education being a department of government, gov- 
ernment will be a department of Education. ‘The 
struggle for power will end, not as some predict, 


[61] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


in universal revolution, which would merely set it 
going again in another form, but by being sub- 
merged, lost sight of, snowed under by the greater 
interests that centre around the struggle for light. 
I say these things will happen. But they will not 
happen unless men are sufficiently resolved that they 
shall. Already thousands are so resolved. Let us 
add our resolutions to others, thereby taking the 
first step towards the recovery of the lost radiance 
of the Christian religion. For one thing we may 
be assured. ‘The struggle for light will not stop 
as a first series of discoveries. It will go on and 
on, from point to point, from position to position, 
from insight to insight, until the fruits of the Spirit 
are possessed, the eternal values revealed, the un- 
searchable riches laid bare, the many mansions fully 
opened, and the turmoil of life transfigured and 
explained in the music and dancing of an immortal 
world. 


XVIII 
PRAYER: For SprriruAL WISDOM 


LMIGHTY God, by Thy Spirit teach me 

what is wise and what is foolish, what is 

noble and what is mean, what is eternal and what 

is passing. And if Thou findest that Thy greatest 
[62] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


things are not my greatest, and that the sweetest 
things of Thy world are not sweetest to me, have 
mercy. Make me wise to know what I would 
soonest part with: whether, if the choice were given 
me, I would rather part with truth than wealth; 
whether I desire more the honors of the world than 
the hidden manna and the name written in the 
book of life. May I prefer goodness to greatness, 
pureness to pride, worthiness to wealth, the doing 
of one good thing to the hearing of many great 
ones: rather to be of Thy unknown known ones 
written in Thy book of life than to have my name 
written in the book of earthly fame. Amen. 


READING: NoTHING BEFALLS Us THat Is Nor 
IN THE NATURE OF OURSELVES 


HERE comes no adventure but wears to our 

soul the shape of our everyday thoughts; and 
deeds of heroism are but offered to those who, for 
many long years, have been heroes in obscurity and 
silence. And whether you climb up the mountain 
or go down the hill to the valley, whether you 
journey to the end of the world or merely walk 
round your house, none but yourself shall meet you 
on the highway of fate. If Judas go forth tonight, 
it is toward Judas his steps will tend, nor will chance 
for betrayal be lacking: but let Socrates open his 


[63] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


door, he shall find Socrates asleep on his threshold 
before him, and there will be occasion for wisdom. 
Our advantages hover around us like bees round 
the hive when preparing to swarm. ‘They wait till 
the mother-idea has come forth from our soul, and 
no sooner has she appeared than they all come rush- 
ing toward her. Be false and falsehoods will hasten 
to you; love, and adventures will flock to you, throb- 
bing with love. ‘They seem to be all on the watch 
for the signal we hoist from within, and if the soul 
grow wiser towards evening, the sorrow will grow 
wiser too that the soul had fashioned for itself in 
the morning. 


XIX 
PRAYER: For REASSURANCE OF FAITH 


@L* beseech Thee, O Lord, that the memory 

of the past may comfort us in all the future 
when sorrows like storms on the mountains seem 
likely to sweep us away. May we remember the 
deliverances of old, and abide in faith. When the 
flame threatens to consume us may we call to mind 
the times gone by when Thou didst stand by us in 
the fire, and protect us. When the fear of death 
draws near, may we recollect Thy words, that be- 
cause Thou hast overcome we shall overcome also. 


[64] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


When it seems as though earthly hopes were blasted, 
may we quit ourselves like men, and stand up in 
the midst of trial and trouble and bear patiently 
Thy will and endure to the end. For Thy Name’s 
sake. Amen. 


READING: PsycHoLocy CANNoT GIVE AN ULTI- 
MATE EXPLANATION OF PRAYER 


‘Gia that suggestion may be the means 

of developing bodily and mental energy, there 
is no reason why it should not be the channel by 
which we receive answers to prayer. If concen- 
tration on whatever suggests goodness and power 
has these beneficial results, there is no reason why 
the law should not continue to hold good when the 
goodness and power are conceived of as centred in 
a living God who is our heavenly Father. We 
should agree that, let us say, the doctrine of evolu- 
tion in no way contradicts the belief that God 
created the world. It only describes the way in 
which He created it. Nor should we hesitate to 
thank God for our food because it came through the 
agency of the farmer and the baker or because the 
corn out of which it was made grew in accordance 
with the laws of nature. In the same way, sug- 
gestion may be the psychological channel through 
which many blessings enter into our lives. To assert 


[65] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


this neither proves nor disproves the existence of 
a God from whom they ultimately came and who 
created both life and the conditions of life. 


XX 


PRAYER: For STRENGTH AND LIGHT 


ie have not loved others in all classes of society, 

as Thou, O Lord, hast loved us. We have 
not thanked Thee sufficiently for the treasures of 
knowledge, and for the opportunities of doing good, 
which Thou hast given us in this latter day. 

We have worried ourselves too much about the 
religious gossip of the age, and have not considered 
enough the fixed forms of truth. We have been 
indolent, and have made many excuses for falling 
short in Thy work. And now, O Lord, in these 
dificult times, when there is a seeming opposition 
of knowledge and faith, and an accumulation of 
facts beyond the power of the human mind to con- 
ceive; and good men of all religions, more and 
more, meet in ‘Thee; and the strife between classes 
in Society, and between good and evil in our own 
souls, is not less than of old; and the love of pleasure 
and the desires of the flesh are always coming in 
between us and Thee; and we cannot rise above 
these things to see the light of Heaven, but are 

[66] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


tossed upon a sea of troubles—we pray Thee to be 
our guide and strength and light, that, looking up 
to Thee always, we may behold the rock on which 
we stand, and be confident in the word which Thou 
hast spoken. Amen. 


READING: "THE TRurE IDEAL oF LirE MAKES 
MAN A FELLOW-wWoRKER WITH Gop 


HE true ideal of life is essentially fearless, 

active, aspiring, social, generous. It values all 
that this life can give, though in varying degrees, 
but it values the getting of these good gifts more 
than the gifts themselves. It frankly recognizes 
that this world is a place in which effort, pain, 
danger and death must be undergone by everyone 
in it, but it does not count it a worse world on 
that account. Its attitude toward it is robust. For 
instance, it counts not absolute knowledge either 
of God or of Nature or Man as of the highest value. 
It asks not to be given knowledge of this kind made 
up in neat parcels for immediate consumption, it 
rejoices rather in the privilege of wringing it out 
of things. It believes that God wills this. It asks 
not for immunity from danger, pain or death, for 
it believes that life would lose its educative value 
if opportunities for courage, self-sacrifice, love and 
faith were removed from it; that life, moreover, 


[67] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


would lose its hallowing mystery, its solemn impres- 
sions, if there were nothing dark and painful and 
inexplicable in it. 


XXI 


PRAYER: For MoraAt CourRAGE 


ORD and King, we pray Thee this day for 

courage to face unpopularity for the sake of 
truth; for courage to declare boldly our convictions, 
though they make us despised; for courage to break 
with evil custom and evil opinions, even though 
for so doing we are shunned and outcast. 

Give us strong hearts that will not fear what 
any man may do unto us, confident in the power 
of truth to stablish itself by its own inherent force. 
Give us, O Lord, the spirit of boldness, that we 
may trample on our fear of our fellows; being strong 
in ‘Thee and very courageous. Amen. 


READING: "THE CouRAGE WE REQUIRE MostT IN 
OrpINArRY LIFE 18 MorAL COURAGE 


fl De courage we require most is the courage 
which fights not against weapons or engines 
of war, but against the opinions, prejudices, and 


[68] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


meannesses of mankind. It is a courage of which 
Aristotle had no distinct conception, nor can we 
define its exact limits. "The person who is gifted 
with it is himself under all circumstances; he is 
perhaps rather too much given to fighting the 
hypocrisies and unrealities of the world, yet a few 
examples may be given to bring this character out 
in a clearer light. At school or college he will not 
simply fall into the ways of others, talk as they 
talk—he will not allow low language to be used, 
or low principles to be maintained in his presence; 
neither will he suffer a friend to be traduced or 
ridiculed without standing up for him. He will 
have no false shame about himself and his circum- 
stances, knowing that simplicity and truth are always 
better than pretence or concealment. If he has 
opinions he is willing to assert them. ‘The breath 
of opposition does not flutter him nor the loud voice 
terrify him; he is not dependent on accidents of 
time or place; he is no regarder of persons, neither 
will he be much affected by compliments and flat- 
tery; on all occasions, wherever we meet him, in 
business or society, he shows himself to be a man. 

Such characters are rarer than formerly, yet the 
need of them is greater than ever, for the world 
as it grows wiser seems also to grow weaker. Be- 
cause life is made so easy to all of us, we must not 
therefore take it easily or lose ourselves in sentimen- 
talism or the feeble criticism of all things. 


[69] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


XXII 


PRAYER: For CONSECRATION TO THE DIVINE 
SERVICE 


LESS and accept, dear Master and beloved ~ 

Inspirer of all goodness, truth and beauty, this 
offering of our hearts’ desires. Meet with us here 
and as we kneel before Thee, cleanse our souls from 
all the soiling of the world, open the eyes of our 
understanding, and lift us up to Thine own land 
of peace. “Tender has been Thy love, O Lord, 
which has accompanied us thus far; accept Thou 
our love in return and pardon its defects in will 
and deed. Unto Thy glory we humbly offer our- 
selves to be used and fashioned for the larger life 
of service on this earth and in the great Hereafter 
where, we believe, fresh revelations of Thy love 
await our coming. Enter into our inmost souls and 
leave them not forever. Amen. 


READING: LOVE AND REPENTANCE LEAD TO A 
New LIFE 


ESUS said, “Think ye I am come to call the 


Righteous? I came not to call the righteous, 


[70] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


but sinners to repentance.” Subtly and marvellously 
does Goethe depict this in the spiritual development 
of Margaret in “Faust.” We see her rising even 
through her fall, to moral dignity, and moral great- 
ness. From the weak, inexperienced victim, she be- 
comes the martyr, voluntarily expiating her sin by 
suffering, then the teacher of sages in Heaven. 

If the hard and bitter experiences of life taught 
us no lessons and gave us no new strength; if the 
wasted years, so far as our own contentment and 
happiness are concerned, bore no fruit for the future 
and the Kingdom of God; if no atonement of 
penitence, love and service were permitted man for 
his sins; if there were no God, holding us by the 
hand, planning for us and watching over us, leading 
us on; if this life were our only life and there 
Were no eternity in which to profit by what we 
have learned and suffered here, who could find the 
courage to continue such a life to the end? But 
believing as we do, we can endure, we can be patient, 
we can go on loving and trusting and working. We 
can pronounce life good. ‘The consolations of the 
Lord are not small. ‘Deep is the ploughing of the 
earthquake. Deep is the ploughing of grief, but oft- 
times less would not suffice for the agriculture of 
God. Upon a single night of earthquake He plants 
a thousand years of pleasant habitation for the chil- 
dren of men.” (De Quincey.) He who works 
with eternity before His eyes must sometimes to 


[71] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


that eternity sacrifice the single moment of our 
earthly present, and for this we must trust Him. 


XXIII 
PRAYER: A BLESSED LIFE 


ATHER of all mercies; let me do my work 

each day, and if the darkened hours of sorrow 
overtake me, may I not forget the strength that 
comforted me in the desolation of other times. 

Spare me from bitterness and the sharp passions 
of unguarded moments. May I not forget that 
poverty and riches are of the spirit. ‘Though the 
world know me not, may my thoughts and actions 
be such as shall keep me friendly with myself. Lift 
my eyes from the earth and let me not forget the 
uses of the stars. 

Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn 
myself. Let me not follow the clamor of the world, 
but walk calmly in my path. Give me a few friends 
who love me for what I am; and keep ever burning 
before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope. 
And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I 
come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, 
teach me still to be thankful for life and for time’s 
olden memories that are good and sweet, and may 
the evening’s twilight find me gentle still. Amen. 


[72] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


READING: IT Is WELL THAT THE UNIVERSE IS 
Nor OrpERED ACCORDING TO OuR WISHES 


LARGE part of modern pessimism is a rooted 

objection to two and two making four. I 
have just been reading a story in which Providence 
is arraigned because a mother neglects her child and 
it falls into the fire, and another in which the nature 
of things is said to be incorrigible because a deserving 
man loses his money. ‘These writers demand that 
fire should be warm and cook but never burn and 
scorch; that water should quench thirst and float 
ships but not swamp or drown, .. . that the nature 
of things should be variable according to our whims 
and necessities. On the whole it seems to me more 
orderly and perhaps in the long run more com- 
fortable, that two and two should make four than 
that they should make five or seven, according to 
the whim of an arbitrary Providence. As life goes 
on I have less and less time for mere railing against 
the fixed framework of the universe. It is hard 
stuff no doubt; but it’s what we have to work upon, 
and there’s no changing it. 


[73] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


XXIV 
PRAYER: For LOYALTY TO THE TRUTH 


LMIGHTY God, who hast sent the Spirit 

of truth unto us to guide us unto all truth, 
so rule our lives by Thy power, that we may be 
truthful in word and deed and thought. O keep 
us, most merciful Saviour, with Thy gracious pro- 
tection, that no fear or hope may ever make us 
false in act or speech. Cast out from us what- 
soever loveth or maketh a lie, and bring us all unto 
the perfect freedom of Thy truth; through Jesus 
Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen. 


READING: ‘THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS THE SUPREME 
LIFE 


T is becoming harder than it once was to accept 
His life as one life among many, the change 

to a clearer issue is one that all who believe in Him 
may welcome. It cannot be truly known as life 
at all till it is known as the Supreme Life. If other 
lives will not be ruled by His life, they must 
presently seek to cast it out as an evil thing. 
Whereas they for the time prevail, they work perdi- 


[74] 


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tion and destruction for a little hour, and then they 
perish while yet proving that life cannot be slighted 
or repudiated with impunity, whereas He prevails, 
He conquers that He may save. Could His life 
be banished from the life of men, the bright heathen 
life that once lived in ages long preceding His com- 
ing could live no more as it lived then. The ancient 
gods, the gods of the earth were not slain by the 
Nazarene. He destroyed nothing that had life; He 
lived that all which ever lived may live again in 
Him. No ancient form of life can perish forever, 
though it be long before mankind are fitted to receive 
it back at Christ’s hand, renewed and transfigured 
by His resurrection. 

As it is with the youth of mankind so it is with 
the youth of each and all. If the season is past 
when nature ministers life abundantly, yet He who 
died to nature that He might live to God has a 
saving power in store for every season. If He is 
sought . . . as Himself the Life, He will open up 
hidden springs of life in the desert within; and the 
deserts around that which remains of the threescore 
years and ten may be moulded into a living form, 
fair in His eyes and fit for His service. 


[75] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


XXV 


PRAYER: For KNOWLEDGE 


eater of Lights, by whose hand the fires 

of the sun are fed, and who hast kindled in 
our hearts the desire to know, we bless Thee for 
leading us into a life wherein light and darkness 
are so wonderfully mingled. For the darkness and 
for the light we praise Thee. On our knees we 
would learn to think. Standing on our feet we 
would learn to pray. O Thou in whose being the 
simplicity and mystery of life do meet together, 
cleanse our prayers with the sanctity of reason, en- 
noble our reasonings with the majesty of prayer, 
and so bring us onward through darkness and 
through light, till in Thy presence and before our 
eyes the power that made the stars and the love that 
exalts our hearts shall kiss each other, through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 


READING: ‘THE Basis oF RELIGION Is REVELA- 
TION, Not Mystery 


ELIGION does not depend on the things we 
are ignorant of, but on the things we know. 
Its basis is revelation, not mystery; and it is not 


[76] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


affected by the fact that mysteries abound. Little 
as we know and much as we are ignorant of, our 
responsibility for what we know is unqualified. I 
do not think it is possible to overstate either the 
dimensions of our ignorance, or the urgency of our 
responsibility for acting up to what we know. There 
is always a temptation to let the first of these depress 
our interest in the second; ignorance—sometimes 
erected into a principle and designated agnosticism 
—falls like a heavy frost upon morality and religion. 
It takes the faith and virtue out of them. “The most 
perplexed and baffled man, the man who has most 
certainly come to the limit of his insight, and who 
is most appalled by the opaqueness of the future, 
knows something; and it is on his action in view 
of that knowledge that his relation to God depends. 
He is not to be tested by what he does not under- 
stand in the infinite scheme of the universe, but by 
how he faces the responsibility imposed on him by 
what he knows. 


XXVI 
PRAYER: For INCREASING STRENGTH 


UR Father, in Thy presence we will nourish 
our hearts and take a new song upon our lips. 
Whether we be in poverty or plenty, in power or 


[77] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


obscurity, whether we succeed or whether we fail, 
we desire to know that Thou art with us and all 
is well. Help us never to pass by human love, 
tenderness, friendship, and pity, and always to re- 
member that our highest welfare is in the passionate 
desire for what is right, lovely, pure, just and noble. 
Lead us into a life of harmony and set our desires 
in order. Grant that we may pass from strength 
to strength, with light enough for each day’s work, 
hope enough for every dark hour and friends enough 
to love. Put Thy Spirit within us that we may 
strive for the increase of knowledge and the spread 
of justice; that we may battle against evil and waste, 
choosing a short severe life rather than selling our 
souls to Mammon. Inspire us with great hopes, and 
through us achieve Thy holy will. Amen. 


READING: ‘THERE IS No ENEMY OF GROWING 
TrutH So BITTER AS A BIGOT 


A Detain is nothing so dangerous as narrow good- 

ness. Sometimes it is more dangerous than 
open sin. For this narrow goodness generally per- 
suades itself that its own form of goodness is the 
only possible. We must never forget that the 
Pharisees were good men, ready to suffer for their 
own ideas of God. Our modern picture of them, 
the wrong use of the word “Pharisee” is a foolish 


[78] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


and ignorant libel. ‘These men served the religious 
life of their own day, and served it nobly. 

But they were bigots for their own forms and 
their own narrow ideas of truth. There is no enemy 
of growing truth so bitter as a bigot. “The Pharisees 
made up their minds that Christ’s type of religion 
was really worse than sin. Sin at best was an open 
enemy, but Jesus was subtly undermining the whole 
edifice of God. ‘They resolved that this man must 
be wrecked by fair means or foul. 

It is certainly worth observing that Jesus was 
crucified not by men who were wicked, as we usually 
understand the term, but by men who were “good.” 


XXVIT 


PRAYER: For A SENSE OF THE PRESENCE OF GoD 


LMIGHTY and most merciful God; this 

earth is the dwelling place of Thy besetting 
Presence. Everywhere and always Thou art with 
us; but often we cannot discern Thee nor feel Thee 
to be near. The darkness and confusion of our 
hearts hide Thee from us and the struggle and 
burden of our lives make us forget. Recall us now, 
good Father, to ourselves and to Thee. Help us 
ever to cultivate and cherish the spirit which changes 
pain into patience and pity, temptation into a dis- 


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cipline of strength, and sorrow into joy. And when 
the fair dreams pass far away, and our mortal day 
is dark with storm, help us to live that we may pass 
through our trouble into a deeper peace; and through 
the cross of our sacrifice, into closer fellowship with 
Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. 


READING: Gop Witt ANSwEeR Him WuHo 
SINCERELY PRAYS 


UR situation as strangers on the earth, requires 

us to seek communication with God. It de- 
mands and necessitates prayer. “The presupposition 
to ail prayer is that there is such a thing as a will 
of God, applicable to my situation, a Divine com- 
mandment bearing on the very circumstances in 
which I have to act, and by obeying which my 
exiled, uncertain life is united to the eternal life 
of God. Prayer is not always the presenting of 
defined petitions to God; we may not know what 
we need or even what we want—except that it is 
God. Prayer may be the effort of the soul, oppressed 
by the sense of its isolation, its impotence or its 
exile in the world, to connect itself again effectively 
with Him. It is not an attempt to lay down the 
law of God; it is the longing of the soul to be sure 
of the law which He has laid down for it. And 
this particular kind of prayer, in which the soul, 


[80] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


conscious of its darkness, its weakness, its incapacity 
to face life alone, cries to God in the pathetic, ap- 
pealing tone of the Psalmist: “I am a stranger in 
the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me,” 
—has a peculiar promise connected with it in Scrip- 
ture. “Call unto me and I will answer thee and 
show thee the great and hidden things that thou 
knowest not.” ‘This is what we need—to have the 
Divine law which eludes us, made plain for our 
actual situation. It may be made plain to us, as 
to Jeremiah, to whom this promise was given, in 
marvels of providential wisdom and goodness, in 
great and hidden things that we know not: but 
it is in any case made plain, in answer to prayer. 


XXVIII 


PRAYER: For DIVINE TEACHING 


MY Lord, I need Thee to teach me day by 

day, according to each day’s opportunities and 
needs. Give me that purity of conscience which 
alone can receivé, which alone can improve Thy 
inspirations. My ears are dull, so that I cannot 
hear Thy voice. My eyes are dim so that I cannot 
see Thy tokens. ‘Thou alone canst quicken my 
hearing, and purge my sight and renew my heart. 
‘Teach me to sit at Thy feet and to hear Thy word. 
Amen. 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


READING: THE SHADOW OF THE Cross Must 
One Day Fatt Upon Our SWEETEST GARDEN 


Ge horror we watch the shades of death taking 

possession of our garden, and imparting to our 
lives the peculiar quality of pain and sacrifice. We 
think that all is over with the sweet fragrance of 
olden days, that nevermore again shall we know 
the fascinating charm of the earth. It may be so. 
To some extent it is so, doubtless. Yet the change 
is surely for the better. “The touch of some great 
sorrow or sacrifice which life has demanded of us, 
may change the sheltered coward into a brave man 
who bears his heart exposed and unprotected in the 
open. It may change also the world of a man’s 
ideals until he will be henceforth ashamed of mere 
selfish delight, however artistic, and will be ashamed 
to respond to the demand for assuagement of the 
world’s sorrow and pain. Christ comes to all our 
gardens thus, invading and claiming them. We 
bring love and the open generous heart that tears 
down the gates of their exclusiveness and insists 
that we shall share our best with the disinherited. 
So for us, each one according to his experience, shall 
Christ replace our demand for selfish enjoyment 
with His greater ideals of sacrifice and redemption. 
We shall still have our secret places, nor will His 
presence banish any of the fairest elements of life; 


[82] 


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but we shall no longer take up an attitude of 
spiritual selfishness towards any part of the outer 
world, seeking rather to share whatever gifts the 
garden may have brought us, with those whose 
poverty of spirit needs such gifts. 


XXIX 
PRAYER: For SpirITUAL GUIDANCE 


1 eee Father, guide our thought, direct our 
way, send out light to meet us as we thirst 
and toil and blunder after it; draw out the good 
that is in us; help us to follow earnestly the better 
thing that goes before us, lovely as a phantom and 
as elusive. Lord, it is dark, very dark, but grant 
unto us light enough to show what to do next, the 
things waiting to be done, the things most worthy 
to be done. Let us give ourselves to do these, that 
something divine may be fulfilled in us, and we 
ourselves prepared for a new revelation. Let us 
endure the inevitable, and open our hearts to receive 
the moral uses of painful things and show forth a 
more hopeful spirit. May we learn more and more 
the greatness, the blessedness, the worth of life in 
living to obey Thy voice and to minister willingly 
of that which we have after the fashion of Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 


[83] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


READING: CHRISTIANITY Has DoNE BETTER 
THAN IF It Hap EXPLAINED SUFFERING AND 
EvIL 


HRISTIANITY has not “explained” suffering 

and evil; no one has done so, no one can do 
so. ... Yet Christianity has done two things with 
regard to suffering quite other than “explanation,” 
yet two things, greater and more profound and 
profitable for us than ever could be such a satis- 
faction and our thirst for clear intellectual compre- 
hension. Christianity has from the first immensely 
deepened and widened the fact, the reality, the awful 
potency and baffling mystery of sorrow, pain, sin, 
things which abide with man across the ages. And 
Christianity has, from the first, immensely increased 
the capacity, the wondrous search and force which 
issues in a practical, living, loving transcendence, 
utilization, transformation of sorrow and pain and 
even of sin. It is the literal fact that Christianity 
after some two centuries of the most terrific opposi- 
tion, conquered the philosophy of Greece and the 
power of Rome. It reformed all Epicureanism, 
since man cannot find his deepest by flying from 
pain and suffering, ... and it reformed all Stoicism, 
since pain, suffering, evil are not fancies and 
prejudices. Christianity thus gave to souls the faith 
and strength to grasp life’s nettle. 


[84] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


XXX 
PRAYER: For SPIRITUAL GROWTH 


LORD God, our Creator, by Thy will we 
came into being, and at Thy command, when 
the right hour is come, we shall one day leave this 
world. ‘Thou alone knowest the holiness to which 
we might have attained, if from our earliest days 
we had always claimed the privilege of our sonship. 
But, O Lord, we have not done so. We have 
not lived in the strength of Thy grace. Form us 
into Thine image more and more in the years that 
we have still to live. Mould us by Thine almighty 
power. Burn out of us all that is sinful and cor- 
rupt. As the grass and the flowers grow by the 
warmth of Thy sun and the showers of Thy rain, 
so let Thy Spirit work in our souls a holy growth 
that we may become well-pleasing in Thy sight. 
Every day may we increase in self-forgetfulness, in 
simplicity, in courage and in trust, and thus shall 
we every day approach nearer to Thy likeness. 
Make us, O God, true branches of Thee, the living 
Vine and to Thee be all the glory. Amen. 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


READING: "THE SPIRITUAL MAN SHOULD TAKE 
ADVANTAGE OF THE LAW oF Hapsit 


HOUGH it be true that habits are formed and 

uprooted by the same process, namely, by a 
persevering repetition of acts; still if the habit be 
accordant to inclination it is quickly formed and 
very slowly uprooted. Contrariwise, if it be adverse 
to inclination it is hard to form and easy to lose. 
In the forming of difficult habits and in the uproot- 
ing of easy habits, perseverance does not mean in- 
fallibility and constancy, but is compatible with the 
absolutely certain previsions of many lapses and 
failures. It is the resolution to do one’s best, and 
after each lapse to begin again with great faith in 
the psychological law by which the falls become 
fewer and more wide apart, till at last the intervals 
are measured by years, or even by a life-time. “The 
ignorance of this law is a source of great discourage- 
ment. Men are simply astonished to find that they 
cannot change a habit by one strong revolution; and 
after two or three attempts, give up in bewilder- 
ment. Yet even on natural psychological principles 
it is not strange that it should take four or five 
years to eradicate all the germs of a disease con- 
tracted in a month or less. 


[86] 


FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


XXXI 


PRAYER: For HEALTH AND HEALING 


LMIGHTY God, who art the only source 

of health and healing, the spirit of calm and 
the central peace of the universe: grant to us, Thy 
children, such a consciousness of Thy indwelling 
presence as may give us utter confidence in Thee. 
In all pain and weariness and anxiety may we throw 
ourselves upon Thy besetting care, that knowing 
ourselves fenced about by Thy loving omnipotence, 
we may permit Thee to give us health and strength 
and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


READING: FatirH Has a DousLE MoveMENT— 
CONCENTRATION AND EXPANSION 


WHE normal movement of faith is double, like 

the action of the valves of the heart. Our 
whole nature is ennobled and enhanced, as we try 
to follow the gleam, dimly perceived perhaps, but 
deeply believed in. And thus enrichment takes the 
double form of expansion and concentration. If 
we read the writings of the mystics, we shall find 
that nearly all the stress is laid on concentration. 


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We are to draw all things into one, detaching our- 
selves from whatever we cannot translate into a 
symbol of the divine. ‘‘Go not forth,” they say to 
us: “return into thyself: in the inner man is the 
habitation of truth.” ‘This is indeed a lesson that 
we have to learn. We are not to be careful and 
troubled about many things, when one thing is need- 
ful. Prayer and meditation will teach us much that 
we cannot learn in any other way. If we cannot 
find God, it is perhaps because He is at home, while 
we are abroad; He is ready for us while we are 
too busy to attend to Him. Yes, this is half the 
truth, but only half. In Jacob’s vision, the angels 
were not only climbing up the ladder, they were 
also coming down it. What does this mean? It 
means that we are not to run away from life even 
to find God, but that we are to come back with 
our treasure as soon as we have found it. Have 
we succeeded in finding God in the world? ‘Then 
let us try to find the world in God. 


XXXII 
PRAYER: For SPIRITUAL VISION 
GOD), who art from everlasting to everlasting, 
we rejoice that through our fleeting days runs 


the strength of Thine eternal purpose. We praise 
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FOR VARIOUS GIFTS AND GRACES 


‘Thee that we are not the mere creatures of chance 
but that we came forth from Thee and that unto 
Thee we shall return. In the fulness of time the 
meaning and mystery of life will be made plain to 
us and the glory of Thy work in the world be 
revealed. Open our eyes to the vision of the eternal 
years that in that vision we may lose our restlessness 
and become partakers of Thy strength. Be Thou 
our strong fortress and our most strong tower unto 
death. Amen. 


READING: ALL THE Morat Issues or Lire ARE 
MENTAL 


HOUGHT is the great creator. The universe 

in all its imaginable glory rises at its bidding. 
Man shares in this creative power. He wrestles 
with chaos and wrings out of it order, beauty, a 
cosmos in which he is at home everywhere. ‘The 
animal reacts to its environment and asks not the 
reason why, but man knocks at the gate of truth 
and will not be denied. 

Thought creates character. All the moral issues 
of life are mental. Thoughts produce feelings; feel- 
ings issue in action; action repeated begets habit; 
habit creates character, and character spells destiny. 
How vital then is the relation of our thought to 
our welfare and happiness? Our thoughts affect 


[89] 


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for weal or woe our bodily health. ‘Take worry, 
for example. We all know what it means, futile 
regret over past sins, past follies, past mistakes; 
miserable foreboding about the future, the imagina- 
tion arraying the unknown in colors that terrify 
and paralyze—the malign powers too often develop 
disorders of mind and body which make existence 
well-nigh intolerable. But if thought can induce 
sickness it can also create health. Think thoughts 
of joy and health and you will be joyful and health- 
ful. Turn the mind to thoughts that are positive 
and constructive. Whatsoever things are true, 
honest, just, pure and lovely and these will inhibit 
the negative and harmful thoughts of the lower self. 
The noble and beautiful furnishing of the soul may 
be all summed up in that great word—‘“The Mind 
of Christ.” 


[90] 


IT 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 





MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 
XXXII 


PRAYER: A MorNING PRAYER FOR STRENGTH 


UR Father, we would speak with Thee ere we 

enter on a new day with its new revelations 
of thy faithfulness, its new duties and responsibilities, 
its unknown joys and sorrows. We look to thee 
in faith. Grant us strength to do what lies nearest, 
and wisdom to guide us in the doing of it. Swiftly 
the days are passing from us. May we fill them 
with pure thoughts, kind words, and good deeds, 
that as they return at eventide into the eternities, 
they may not be to our condemnation but for Thine 
approval. In gladness may we not forget Thee, in 
difficulty and in doubt may we behold the Son of 
Man as our Example and our Hope. When the 
way is rough and our feet grow weary and our 
hearts faint, still may we cling to Thy promise and 
believe that rest will come when Thou seest we 
are ready to enter the Heavenly Home. Amen. 


READING: Gop Fairs Not THE TRUSTING SOUL 


COHEN a man is prepared in the heroic con- 
fidence of friendship to trust God, God will 


[93] 


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not fail him. “God,” it has been finely said, “will 
certainly not prove to be less than His creature’s 
highest thoughts of Him.” ‘The moral qualities of 
God are not less to be depended upon than His 
natural laws. The man who will dare to trust 
Him will find Him true. Jesus Christ taught that 
when you find one man thus linked with God in 
mutual confidence and trust you have an altogether 
irresistible power. You have here, in fact, the 
supreme power in the universe—if, that is to say, 
it be true that the universe is at its heart a moral 
and not merely a natural constitution, not the 
supreme manifestation of the power of God. God 
is love and the man who dares, dares to believe 
utterly in God, has behind him the ultimate force 
of the invisible. 

The limitations are not in God, they are in our- 
selves. ‘The thought of Jesus Christ—that God is 
brooding over this unhappy world with a passion 
of love, with an infinitude of power,—if only He 
might find some man or woman who believes in 
that love, who is prepared to count upon it, that 
love and power would be released for the redemp- 
tion of the world. 

The universe is so constructed that the stars in 
their courses fight for the good man. 


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MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


XXXIV 


PRAYER: AN EVENING PRAYER FOR DIVINE 
BLESSING 


@* beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favor. 

Be patient still; suffer us yet awhile longer 
—with our broken purposes of good, with our idle 
endeavors against evil—suffer us awhile longer to 
endure and (if it may be) help us to do better. 
Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day 
come when these must be taken, brace us to play 
the man under affliction. 

Go with each of us to rest; if any wake, temper 
to them the dark hours of watching; and when the 
day returns, return to us, our sun and comforter, 
and call us up with morning faces and with morning 
hearts—eager to labor, eager to be happy, if hap- 
piness shall be our portion—and, if the day be marked 
for sorrow, strong to endure it. Amen. 


READING: To ENTER THE SILENCE OF Gop IS TO 
GAIN SPIRITUAL POWER 


HERE are silences of human manufacture; the 
shallow silence of contempt, the troubled silence 
of shame, the chill silence of sin’s conviction, the 


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dark silence of conscience when self-condemnation 
is ratified by Divine judgment. Some years ago a 
member of the Society of Friends wrote on the 
color of silence, and told of his experience of many 
hues. Sometimes it is buoyant with the joyousness 
of youth, and becomes the green springtime of hope. 
When men pledge themselves to noble service it 
may be tinged with the blood-red color of self- 
sacrifice. Sometimes it is golden with the harvest of 
glorious attainment when fidelity receives its 
sovereign reward. ‘Then, again, it may be glistening 
white, when truth comes forth and manifests the 
secrets in the mind of God, quickening the hidden 
depths of the pure in heart to their own joyous 
vision. ‘ 

Silence is something more than absence of sound. 
The silence we are seeking, if we attain it, will be 
found living, energetic, beneficent, keen with the 
breath of God, giving new resolution to distracted 
thought, new power to feeble purpose. No good 
work was ever done by a man who has not learned 
to be still. Silence rouses us to fresh endeavor in 
the true work of men who know that this world is 
but the school of a larger life which each may share 
in fellowship one with another in the unity of eternal 
life. Christ’s refuge from the world was found in 
silence. He sought it during the long vigils of the 
night, when in communion with the Father He 
learned what the Divine Will called Him to do 


[96] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


or suffer, and nourished His soul with strength to 
do it. And His influence among men was most 
powerful when He refrained from speech that men 
might hear that which cannot be uttered. His 
opponents declared “Never man so spake.” His 
friends knew that His silence was more eloquent. 


XXXV 


PRAYER: A MorNING PRAYER FOR A FAITHFUL 
AND COMPASSIONATE SPIRIT 


SANCTIFYING God! Inspirer of great and 

saintly souls, who hast given us discernment 
of the Divine trust of life! Fill us with a true and 
faithful spirit, ashamed to sleep, while hou lendest 
light for another duty, resolute to work Thy will, 
till all our strength be spent, prepared for cheerful 
rest when Thou wilt have us wait and be ready to 
depart. Never in the crush and storm of life, may 
we quench Thy sweet Spirit; but so cherish it that 
amid earthly and transitory things, it may fill us 
with the glow of heavenly affections and the light 
of tranquil faith. Amen. 


ReapInc: WE ALL Fait To Do Wuat WE Can 


VERY one is familiar with the phenomenon of 
feeling more or less alive on different days. 


Lo7] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


Every one knows on any given day that there are 
energies slumbering in him which the incitements 
of that day do not call forth, but which he might 
display if these were greater. Most of us feel as 
if a sort of cloud weighed down upon us, keeping 
us below our highest notch of clearness in discern- 
ment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. 
Compared with what we ought to be, we are only 
half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are 
checked. We are making use of only a small part 
of our possible mental and physical resources. In 
some persons this sense of being cut off from their 
rightful resources is extreme, and we then get the 
formidable neurasthenic and psychasthenic condi- 
tions, with life grown into one tissue of impossibili- 
ties, that so many medical books describe. 

Stating the thing broadly, the human individual 
thus lives usually far within his limits; he possesses 
powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to 
use. He energizes below his maximum, and he 
behaves below his optimum. In elementary faculty, 
in co-ordination, in power of inhibition and control, 
in every conceivable way, his life is contracted like 
the field of vision of an hysteric subject—but with 
less excuse, for the poor hysteric is diseased, while 
in the rest of us it is only an inveterate habit—the 
habit of inferiority to our full self—that is bad. 


[98] 


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XXXVI 


PRAYER: AN EVENING PRAYER FOR DIVINE 
CoMFORT 


BIDE with us, O Lord, this night, that the 

brightness of Thy love may be around us, 
and that the darkness be not dark. Abide with us, 
O Lord, this night, for in loneliness, we are not 
alone if Thou art nigh. Abide with the sick, the 
sorrowful, the forsaken and the weary, to strengthen, 
to comfort, to cheer, and to give rest. Shield us 
all from darkness of soul which seeth Thee not, that 
loneliness of heart which heareth not Thy voice. 
Abide with us through life, and in the valley of 
the shadow of death, forsake us not, but bid us be 
of good courage, for Thou art with us still. Amen. 


READING: DEATH IS THE INTERPRETER OF LIFE 


ey tells us better than any science or philosophy 

can, what life really is and ought to be. Have 
you ever been at death’s door? ‘Then did you not 
at such a time pass through the deepest experience 
of your life? Was not the truth of life clearer to 
you than before? Did you not see as in the light 
of the Judgment Day what was true and what was 


[99] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


false in your life? Did you not discover the mean- 
ing of life? . . . But if we had not faced death for 
ourselves, we have stood by the death bed of loved 
ones. It was an instructive hour beyond compare. 
The truth of life was revealed. ‘The world faded 
from us. Life’s big woes, life’s bitter struggles, 
how they shrivelled into insignificance there! How 
could we grade the things of life according to their 
worth, were it not for that? Death is a hot fire 
which burns up the hay and stubble of vanity, and 
leaves the genuine gold of life purified. ... At 
death no one doubts that the higher order is the 
true order. ‘Therefore death is something great. 
Therefore death makes man great. We now know 
how to prepare for death. We now know how to 
stand before death unafraid. 


XXXVITI 
PRAYER: A MornNING PRAYER FOR PERSEVERANCE 


ATHER, ere I go to meet the chances and 
changes of the day, I would commit my ways 
to Thee, for it is not in me to guide my steps. 
Whatever befalls only let me know that Thou art 
near and I will fear no evil and dare to believe 
in every good. Dwell within me as a power 
of cleansing and renewal. Let Thy light and Thy 
[100] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


truth, not my own darkness and error, speak to me. 
Purge away the dross of my life, and make me 
inwardly at one with goodness, truth and beauty. 
Abide with me as a spirit of perseverance so that 
however often I fall, through life’s jar and fret, 
from the ideals inspired of Thee, I may rise up with 
unconquered will, to fight the good fight and by 
Thy gracious help at last to lay hold upon the crown 
of everlasting life. Amen. 


READING: NoNE But YouRSELF SHALL MEET 
You ON THE HIGHWAY OF FATE 


es things that happen to us as we step along 

our path will prove friendly or unfriendly to 
our happiness just as we are inwardly qualified to 
make them. ‘The good or the evil which may come 
through these things is not in the things themselves, 
but in the secret disposition of our own mind and 
will. Their effect upon us is determined by the 
manner and spirit in which we take them. It is 
always what a person has and is within himse/f that 
creates the elements of blessing for him in the events 
and circumstances with which he has to deal. And 
nothing is so effectual in creating the real elements 
of blessing as the sacred energies begotten in the 
soul, by reverent surrender to the spirit of God. 
We may be inclined to fret and complain that the 


[ror] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


good of life is denied us, that our surroundings debar 
us from the satisfaction and the exhilaration we long 
to feel. But our fretting and complaining only 
aggravate the trouble. ‘The imperative need is to 
cast ourselves on the Father above and get awakened 
in us that faith and hope which shall give us power 
to use circumstances for the highest ends and to 
convert our surroundings into help for the enrich- 
ment of our hearts. ‘That is the true moral victory, 
and through Faith and Hope we create the condi- 
tions for winning it. 


XXXVIIT 


PRAYER: A MorNING PRAYER FOR THE SPIRIT 
OF BROTHERLY LOVE 


O UR Father: Once more a new day lies before 

me. As I go out among men to do my work, 
touching the hands and lives of my fellows, make 
me a friend of all the world. Save me from blighting 
the fresh flower of any heart by the flare of sudden 
anger or secret hate. May I not bruise the rightful 
self-respect of any by contempt or malice. Help 
me to cheer the suffering by my sympathy, to freshen 
the drooping by my hopefulness and to strengthen 
in all the wholesome sense of worth and the joy 
of life. Grant that I may look all men in the face 


[102] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


with the eyes of a brother. If any one needs me 
make me ready to yield my help ungrudingly, unless 
higher duties claim me, and may I rejoice that I 
have it in me to be helpful to my fellow-men. Amen. 


READING: Wer Can Go To Gop ONLY WITH 
OTHERS 


OW can we look around upon the people whom 

we habitually feel to be separated from us by 
almost impassable barriers; who are above us so that 
we cannot reach them, or so far beneath us that 
the slightest recognition of them is an act of gracious 
condescension; upon the people of an opposite fac- 
tion to our own, whom we denounce as utterly evil; 
upon men whom we have reason to despise; upon 
the actual wrong-doers of society, those who have 
made themselves vile and are helping to make it vile 
—and then teach ourselves to think that in the very 
highest exercise of our lives these are associated with 
us; that when we pray we are praying for them 
and with them; that we cannot speak for ourselves 
without speaking for them; that if we do not carry 
their sins to the throne of God’s grace, we do not 
carry our own; that all the good we hope to obtain 
there belongs to them just as much as to us, and 
that our claim to it is sure of being rejected, if it is 
not one which is valid for them also? Yet all this 


[103] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


is included in the word “Our.” . . . What man of 
us—the aptest scholar of all—will venture to say 
that he has yet truly pronounced it; that his clearest 
utterances of it has not been broken and stam- 
mering? ... How many pretexts have the most 
tolerant among us for intolerance! How skilful are 
the most religious for explaining away the awful 
command: “Judge not that ye be not judged!” 


XXXIX 


PRAYER: AN EVENING PRAYER For THE DIVINE 
BLESSING 


ATHER of all mercies! Ere the day end we 

seek ‘Thy blessing on whatever of worthy work 
and right purpose Thou hast enabled us to accom- 
plish. Bring to nought the desires of our foolish 
and blinded hearts. If we have brought sadness 
upon any, help us to repent and to make amends. 
If others have wronged us, help us to lay aside 
all resentment and to forgive as we would be for- 
given. In the darkness as in the light stay Thou 
with us and give us Thy sweet gift of sleep. Wake 
us in the morning, renewed in body and in mind, 
ready for Thy call to the tasks of another day: 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


[104] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


READING: THE HIGHEST VIRTUE IS ENTHUSIASTIC 


HRIST demanded virtue of the enthusiastic 
kind; He prohibited evil desires as well as 
wrong acts... . This higher kind of goodness, 
though of course it had existed among the heathen 
natives, yet had never among them been sufficiently 
distinguished from the lower to receive a separate 
name. ‘The earliest Christians felt a natural re- 
pugnance to describe the ardent, enthusiastic good- 
ness at which they aimed, by the name of virtue. 
Regarding the ardor, they felt an express inspiration 
or spiritual presence of God within them, they bor- 
rowed from the language of religous worship a word 
for which our equivalent is “holy”; and the in- 
spiring power they consistently called the Spirit of 
Holiness or the Holy Spirit. Accordingly while a 
virtuous man is one who controls and coerces the 
anarchic passions within him so as to conform his 
actions to law, a holy man is one in whom a pas- 
sionate enthusiasm absorbs and annuls the anarchic 
passions altogether, so that no internal struggle takes 
place, and the lawful action is that which presents 
itself first, and seems the one most natural and most 
easy to be done. 


[105] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


XL 


PRAYER: A MorNING PRAYER FOR LIFE AND 
PowER AND LOVE 


HOU knowest, O Heavenly Father, the duties 

that lie before me this day, the dangers that 
may confront me, the sins that must beset me. 
Guide me, strengthen me, protect me. Give me 
Thy life in such abundance that I may this day 
hold my soul in Thy pure light. Give me Thy 
power that I may become a power for righteousness 
among my fellows. Give me Thy love, that all 
lesser things may have no attraction for me; that 
selfishness, impurity and falseness may drop away 
as dead desires, holding no meaning for me. Let 
me find Thy power, Thy love, Thy life in all man- 
kind, and in the secret places of my own soul. Amen. 


READING: IN THE ABSOLUTE Love ALONE SHALL 
WE Finp REst 


RUE being is union with the unchangeable, the 
infinite, the imperishable; with the all-creating, 
all-possessing Love whom we call God, and who, 
because He is absolute Love, is also absolute Life. 
How shall we creatures of a day attain this wondrous 


[106] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


end? We attain it by loving, by losing ourselves 
in love, by claiming our indestructible union with 
the eternal love within us, and living that love with 
act and speech among our brother-spirits here or 
elsewhere. That is to know God, to be His child, 
to live in Him. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth 
in God, and God in him. And that is why Christ 
Jesus said: ‘He that drinketh of these waters (of 
all the waters Nature or humanity give us) shall 
thirst again; but the water that I shall give him 
(the water of God’s being, unison with the absolute 
Love) shall be in him a well of water springing up 
into everlasting life.’ There alone is satisfaction 
for us, children of the Infinite—in the union of 
our little fire of love with the eternal glow, we unite 
ourselves to Nature, by science, by art, by feeling: 
it is well we unite ourselves to humanity: it is well, 
but in the absolute love alone shall we find our rest. 


XLI 


PRAYER: A MOorRNING PRAYER FOR PURITY OF 
HEART 


GOD, the King Eternal, who dividest the day 
from the darkness, and turnest the shadow of 
death into the morning; Drive far from us all wrong 
desires, incline our hearts to keep Thy law and 


[107] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


guide our feet into the way of peace; that having 
done ‘Thy will with cheerfulness while it was day, 
we may, when the night comes, rejoice to give [Thee 
thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 


READING: ALL Our IpEALS ARE REVELATIONS 
or Gop 


Ma know what we mean when we speak of 
God; the eternal perfection, the absolute 
goodness, truth, and beauty, whose light 


“guides the nations, groping on their way, 
Stumbling and falling in disastrous night, 
Yet hoping ever for the Perfect Day.” 


In this perfect life, all that our struggling ideals 
point to is forever realized; and every ideal of ours, 
—partial, fragmentary, imperfect though it may be 
—is a direct revelation of some aspect of absolute 
perfection, in whom all ideals are consummated. 
Thus do all the fates of human goodness begin and 
end in God, although men may not always see this, 
and may not always know who goes with them and 
guides their footsteps when, with earnest effort, they 
maintain the nobler way. 

The only possible “proof” that the appeal which 
trust and love make to us, are literally divine, is 
found in living up to them so far as we are able. 


[108 | 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


If duty is divine there can be no way of “proving” 
it but through an experience which can be attained 
only by living the life of duty. ... “Truth must 
be ground for every man by himself out of its husk, 
with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without 
stern labor of his own”: and the deepest truths of 
life—the divine meaning of life’s duties and ideals 
—can be won only in the work of life. 


XLII 


PRAYER: AN EVENING PRAYER FOR PARDON AND 
PEACE 


GOD, as this day closes, humbly I thank Thee 

for all that it has brought me; for its joys and 
also for its trials. Thou hast given me life and 
hast delivered me from many evils. Thou con- 
tinuest daily to shower Thy mercies upon me. What 
return can I make for all Thy benefits? 

Strengthen me, O God, that I may love Thee 
with all my heart, with all my soul and with all 
my might. Pardon, O Father, all my shortcomings 
and help me to overcome them. Grant me strength to 
forgive all who may have wronged me, and give 
me the courage to seek pardon of all whom I may 
have offended. O God, who neither sleepest nor 
slumberest, spread over me the shelter of Thy peace; 


[109 ] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


guard my home and all dear to me. May Thy 
blessing of peace rest upon all Thy children! Amen. 


READING: [HE KINGDOM oF Gop ExIsTts— 
WHETHER WE Forcet IT or Nor 


et is one of the dangers of human life, amid its 

keen and varied interests to lose sight of one 
or other of the standing and primary realities by 
which it is surrounded, and which cannot be for- 
gotten without loss and risk. The utilitarian forgets 
that there is such a thing as poetry and passion, 
and the mere sense of what is beautiful. ‘The prac- 
tical man cannot think how so much time is spent 
on literary training or abstract speculation; the 
thinker absorbed in a great philosophy, wonders at 
the fascination of politics or commerce. Yet all 
these things belong equally to the great facts of the 
world. . . . And so whether we forget it or not 
the Kingdom of God exists, exists not in books or 
theories, but in fact... exists after enduring 
everything that undermines and kills ideas and in- 
stitutions. . . . If that which is best in us is not 
to be maimed or cramped, we have need to take 
full account of this as much as of the facts of 
nature and society. We shall be living, if we do 
not, in an imaginary and unreal world. We must 
meet the Kingdom of God. We find it here and 


we must meet it, either as friend or foe. 


[110] 


MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS 


XLII 


PRAYER: AN EVENING PRAYER FOR DIVINE 
SUPPORT 


LORD, support us all the day long until the 

shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and 
the busy world is hushed; and the fever of life is 
over, and our work is done. Then in Thy great 
mercy grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest and 
peace at the last. Amen. 


READING: IMMORAL AND SPIRITUAL LAws ARE THE 
SAME IN ALL WorRLDS 


COU HATEVER doubts we may entertain as to 

the range of physical law, there can be none 
as to the universality and permanence of those great 
moral and spiritual laws on which our existence and 
happiness as spiritual beings depend. Whatever else 
is local, truth and justice and goodness are common 
to all worlds; whatever else is transient, charity 
never faileth. To whatever mutations organic life 
may be subject, of this we may be sure, that the 
life of love and purity and goodness shall never in 
God’s universe find a scene where it cannot flourish. 
Live for the world and the things of the world— 


[111] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


for pleasure, money, ease, comfort, earthly honor 
and enjoyment—and even here your happiness is at 
the mercy of a thousand accidents and you have 
not a shadow of security that that dread transition 
which is approaching will not dissipate your dream 
of enjoyment forever. But while the world passeth 
away and the lust thereof, there are things—holy 
thoughts, spiritual convictions, sweet affections, fine 
feelings, gentle charities, inward possessions and 
prerogatives of thought and spirit—which even here 
retain their preciousness through all the changes and 
losses of time, and which must from their very 
nature, survive the shock of dissolution and the 
transition that shall carry us away from all earthly 
things. You may suppose another or a hundred dif- 
ferent worlds, but you can never suppose a world 
in which truth and benignity and self-sacrifice are 
no longer capable of existing, no longer the sources 
of supreme satisfaction and blessedness. 


[112] 


Iil 


SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


“Paes LA 
** fy re 


a 6, ‘ 1 § 
bate 


id | f 





SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


XLIV 
PRAYER: CHRISTMAS DAY 


GOD, my Father, looking up at the shining 

stars of the cold December sky I remember the 
patient mother and the rock-hewn manger in lowly 
Bethlehem where lay cradled Thy Love for the 
world. In the shadows of the silent stall I stand 
beside the Christ. Speak to my soul as I wait, I 
pray Thee. Let the trusting, loving spirit of the 
Child steal into my life until it calms all anxious 
fears and soothes all bitterness and pain. 

In willing surrender and passionate longing let 
me take the Christchild to my heart, that henceforth 
I may live as He lived, love as He loved, and 
following His footsteps bring help to the needy, 
courage to the weak, comfort to the sorrowing, and 
hope to the lost. Amen. 


READING: BETHLEHEM AND GOLGOTHIA 


N Bethlehem, aye, He was born, 
Who came to bring us life and light,— 
On Golgotha, He did not scorn, 
Upon the Cross to break Death’s might,— 


[115] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


I journeyed from the Western strand 
To many a distant Eastern land, 
Nor greater in the world I saw 

Than Bethlehem and Golgotha! 


O Thou, who in a manger poor, 

Didst choose a helpless Babe to lie, 
Didst shame and gain of Cross endure, 
To take from us our pain thereby; 
The manger seems too base to pride, 
The haughty still the Cross deride, 
While Virtues all with Meckness are, 
In Bethlehem and Golgotha! 


The Wise the Shepherd’s star obeyed, 
And Kings in adoration stood, 

And many a pilgrimage they made 
To kneel before the Holy Rood, 

And such a storm of strife was born, 
The world, yet not the Cross, was torn, 
And East and West the conflict saw, 
O’er Bethlehem and Golgotha! 


O Heart, why fare to foreign land 

His lowly cradle to adore, 

Or, in wrapt wonderment to stand 

By grave which holds Thy Lord no more? 
[116] 


SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


That He in thee hath had His birth, 
And that thou diest unto earth 

And liv’ st, to Him—this only,—ah, 
In Bethlehem and Golgotha! 


XLV 
Prayer: Goop Fripay 


LORD Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today 

and forever; O Saviour of the ever-loving 
heart; we have grieved and wounded Thee. By 
our wilfulness, by our moral cowardice, by our 
thoughtlessness, by our self-seeking we share in cruci- 
fying Thee afresh. By the revelation Thou hast 
made of the eternal love help us to enter into the 
travail of Thy soul, and by loving self-sacrifice blend 
our wills with Thy will to bring all men to a 
knowledge of the Father. Amen. 


READING: YVICARIOUS PENITENCE IS A SAVING 
POWER 


ne spirit that governed the life and death of 

Jesus was the spirit of love. Now, love in- 
volves sympathy, sympathy with those in trouble 
involves sacrifice, and sympathy with those in sin 


[117] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


demands vicarious penitence. An atonement for sin 
is necessary in the shape of something that will 
abolish it, by doing away with its effects and trans- 
forming the sinner. . . . How is vicarious penitence 
saving? It is by doing more perfectly what punish- 
ment does imperfectly; namely, destroying the sin- 
taste in the sinner by “showing up” sin and so 
producing such an intense realization of the nature 
of sin and goodness as must find outlet in action. 
This happens best in our experience when we come 
to see our sins through purer eyes than our own, 
and this is made possible by mutual affection, ‘Thus 
when we see the trouble and suffering that our 
faults have brought on those whom we love, our 
eyes are most likely to be opened to a true under- 
standing of spiritual values. Jesus went up to 
Jerusalem for the last time expecting and even court- 
ing death. The Kingdom of God was to be realized 
by a voluntary self-offering of one man on behalf 
of the people. At the same time the Crucifixion 
was a crime and a crime committed by those whom 
He was trying to help. It is He who is sinned 
against yet he... identifies Himself with His perse- 
cutors: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not 
what they do.” Was sin ever “shown up” more 
luridly than here? 


[118] 


SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


XLVI 
PRAYERS: EASTER-DAY 


THOU who makest the stars and turnest the 

shadow of death into the morning, on this day 
of days our hearts exult with heavenly joy. We 
praise Thee, our Lord and King, for the resur- 
rection of the spring-time, for the everlasting hopes 
that rise within the human breast, and for the 
Gospel which has brought life and immortality to 
light. Receive our thanksgiving, reveal Thy 
presence and send forth into our hearts the Spirit 
of the Risen Christ. Amen. 


JR LESSED Christ, who in this glad and mem- 
orable day didst first fulfil Thy promise of 
Thy presence with Thine own, revealing Thyself 
as alive to those who mourned ‘Thee as dead: Come 
to us now, find the secret way to all our hearts, lift 
the pierced hands in benediction over us, breathe upon 
us the peace that Thou alone canst give. Amen. 


READING: Gop REVERSES THE VERDICT OF 
Curist’s ENEMIES 


ee tragedy is finished. 


A holy man has been wantonly and cruelly 


[119] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS _ 


done to death. Jesus of Nazareth has joined the 
glorious company of those who in the name of God 
defied the principalities and powers of evil, and fell 
a victim to His own delusion. As He hung upon 
the Cross meeting the inevitable fate of His own 
vast presumption, He appeared the heroic, the 
lovable but still the ineffectual Nazarene. But this 
judgment has not been final. ... The belief in 
Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and of His 
triumphant life at the right hand of God was the 
one ray of light that lit the pathway of the faithful 
through centuries of darkness, and the one creative 
force that inspired the builders of a new heaven and 
a new earth. . . . The doctrine of the resurrection 
is a shout of victory; a challenge to the powers of 
evil. How Jesus appeared and what He did 
and said are of little moment compared to the 
transcendant fact that by the impression He made 
upon His disciples He brought hope and immortality 
into the practical life of the world. 


XLVII 


PRAYER: WHITSUNDAY 


SEVEN-FOLD Spirit of God, come Thou into 
our dwelling-place this day and make Thine 
abode with us. 


[120] 


SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


O Comforter, leave us not comfortless, but fill 
our sadness with Thine eternal joy. 

O rushing, mighty Wind of God, stir up and 
quicken and cleanse us, and fill our souls with Thy 
breath of life. 

O Flame of holy fire, burn up the evil that is in 
us, kindle our coldness, enlighten our darkness. 

O Giver of holy Voices, reach us to speak to 
others in the language of their own hearts with the 
gifts of wisdom and understanding. 

O Spirit of truth, guide us into all truth, that 
we may worship nothing lower than the Holiest 
One. 

O Spirit of remembrance, keep in our hearts and 
minds the things of the Kingdom, that we may not 
forget and fall away from them. 

O Dove of peace, descend upon us and abide with 
us now and evermore. Amen. 


READING: THE Gop-FILLED LIFE Is THE ONLY 
EFFICIENT LIFE 


aM touch God on one side and not on another. 

While these words are being written I passed 
from my study for a moment to another room in 
the house, passed from sunshine into comparative 
twilight, and from warmth into comparative cold. 
The transition is symbolic of the change we fre- 


[121] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


quently experience in passing from one side of a 
man’s life to another. You touch him here and 
he is sunny with God’s presence; you touch him 
there and you are struck with the chill of a cold 
night wind. If we were filled with the Spirit, if 
every room in this great temple of life was pervaded 
with heavenly light and heat, it would be possible 
to move from one room to another without any 
perceptible change of temperature. Life has many 
faculties and our trouble is that some are filled and 
some are unfilled with the Spirit of God. Some- 
times the conscience is God-filled but not the affec- 
tions. Sometimes the faculty of benevolence has 
the heavenly light but not the imagination. Some- 
times the emotions are consecrated but not the reason 
and judgment. ... It is the partial filling which 
is the peril of the spiritual life. We must become 
enswathed, enveloped in the Spirit. Open yourself 
up to the Infinite and you will put on strength 
and majesty like a robe! 


XLVIII 


PRAYER: For THE LAst Day OF THE YEAR 


LMIGHTY God, who dost never change, 
grant that from Thine unchangeableness may 
come our fixedness; and as year by year passes away, 


[122] 


SPECIAL OCCASIONS 


and the touch of change, and the shadow of the 
Valley of Death come upon us, ever in Thine un- 
changing wisdom and love may we find a refuge. 
May we abide with quiet heart, knowing that in 
life and in death we are ever within Thy loving 
care, leaving to Thee the things that are too high 
for us and the wisdom that is too deep for us, and 
looking forward fearlessly, blessing Thee that Thou 
givest us light enough for our day’s work, hope 
enough for the night of darkness, life enough for 
love, until our great change comes; after which 
lead ‘Thou us in the paths of eternal peace. We 
ask this through Jesus Christ and in His name. 
Amen. 


READING: “Every MAn’s LIFE IS A PLAN OF 
Gop” 


re look back upon our life and feel that it has 

all followed a plan and a design; that the 
worst evils we have had to bear have been our 
faithless terrors about what should be; and then we 
feel the strength that ebbed from us drawing back 
to sustain us; we recognize that our present suffer- 
ings have never been unbearable; that there has 
always been some residue of hope; we read of how 
brave men have borne intolerable calamities and 
have smiled in the midst of them, at the reflection 


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that they have never been so hard as was anticipated ; 
and then we are happy if we can determine that 
whatever comes, we will try to do our best in our 
small sphere; to live as truly and purely as we can, 
to practise courage and sincerity, to help our fellow- 
sufferers along, to guard innocence, to guide falter- 
ing feet, to encourage all the sweet and wholesome 
joys of life, to be loving, tender-hearted, generous, 
to lift up our hearts, not to be downcast and resent- 
ful because we do not understand everything at once, 
but humbly and gratefully read the scroll as it is 
unrolled. 


[124] 


IV 


SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES 





SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUM- 
STANCES 


XLIX 


PRAYER: A PREACHER’S PRAYER 


ATHER of lights!) Fount of Wisdom and of 
Truth! Who am I that Thou shouldst call 
me to be an interpreter of Thy ways to men? I 
am unworthy of the least of all Thy gifts yet to 
this high place hast Thou summoned me and Thy 
word hast Thou put upon my lips. [lumine my 
mind that I may learn what I ought to think and 
speak concerning Thee. Open my heart to the 
wonder of Thy self-revelation in Him who dwelt 
among us full of grace and truth that I may tell 
of it to others with freedom and with power. 
Never let me speak deceitfully for ‘Thee but al- 
ways let me remember that Thy truth forever wins 
the victory and needs no help from the cunning or 
the craft of man’s devising. Grant me a discerning 
spirit, an honest heart and a sound judgment free 
from vanity and fear, that I may speak boldly, yet 


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with gentleness, whatever message “Thou wilt give 
me; and so let me be to Thee as a hand to turn 
back the sinner from his sin, to smooth the path 
for the innocent, and to wipe away the tears of the 
sad and the sorrowing. Amen. 


READING: "THE PREACHER’S PoWER SPRINGS FROM 
FELLOWSHIP WITH GoD AND SYMPATHY WITH 
MAN 


i aes possession of the life of God in his own 

soul and ability to communicate that life to 
others is the secret of the power of the preacher. 
He who has no such conscious life of God in Him- 
self, or possessing such life, is not possessed by a 
passionate desire to communicate that life to others, 
has no place in the pulpit. 

These two essential qualities of preaching are 
fellowship with God and sympathy with man. This 
is a power which has never waned and never will 
wane so long as God is the universal Father and 
man is His child. All other elements of power are 
aids to this spiritual life, but are valueless without 
it. The preacher may be a Roman Catholic New: 
man, or a Protestant Wesley, a college-trained 
Phillips Brooks or a self-trained D. L. Moody, a 
conservative Spurgeon or a progressive Henry Ward 
Beecher,—if he has Divine fire in himself and if 


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SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES 


he has learned how to communicate that Divine fire 
to others, he will never be without power. 

Preaching is interpreting the living God by one 
who has realized God’s presence in nature, in human 
experience and in the Bible because he has realized 
that presence in his own soul. So to interpret an 
ever-present God as to interpret the spirit of cbedi- 
ence in lawless souls, and give peace to restless souls, 
hope to cynical souls and love to selfish souls, is 
to preach, and such preaching is never futile. 


L 
PRAYER: A MERCHANT’S PRAYER 


ORD Jesus, give us wisdom to understand and 

a will to obey Thy teaching concerning riches 

and poverty, buying and selling, and the conduct 
of business between man and man. Never let us 
forget that the order of industry is based on those 
spiritual principles Thou hast taught the world. 
Grant to the merchant, the producer, the employee, 
the consumer to know the laws of fair compensation 
and profit, and help us to realize that in all our 
business dealings we are called to serve our fellows, 
to bless them, not to injure them. Grant that we 
may never desire to take something for nothing, and 
when we give, may it be with thoughtfulness and 


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with due regard to the interests of the giver and 
the taker, so that those whom we serve may prosper 
in things spiritual and in things material. For Thy 
Name’s sake. Amen. 


READING: ‘THE BUSINESS LIFE CAN BE LIVED 
ON SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES 


pk the higher life cannot be lived while under- 

taking the business necessary to carry on the 
material side of life, then Christianity is based upon 
a gigantic error. ‘There is nothing “worldly” in 
doing the world’s work. ‘That is the ordinance of 
the universe and is intended to lead man to salvation 
perhaps somewhat more certainly than by what we 
usually call religious exercises. It may be carried 
on under wrong principles at present. But let us 
hold to the conviction that there is no final irrecon- 
cilability between the material and the spiritual side 
of life. This much-condemned commercialism of 
our times will, I believe, lead us to see the necessity 
of a communal religion that will be infinitely higher 
than anything dreamed of in the cloister. Any man 
engaged in modern business might keep before him 
as a hope;—that through all this the Kingdom of 
God is going to come. . . . Whatever is at present 
necessary must be borne; but never let your eyes 
wander from the ideal, nor excuse yourself for your — 
failure. 

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SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES 


LI 
PRAYER: A Boy’s PRAYER 


UR Father in Heaven, help us this day to tread 
the paths of righteousness, to follow after 
Jesus; to do nothing that we should be ashamed of 
afterwards. Help us to do unto others as we would 
have done to us. If we participate in any game, 
and sport, help us to play fairly. If by chance we 
slip from the strait and narrow path set us right 
again and keep us from evil. Let us do this day’s 
work with a will and teach us, we pray Thee, to 
do the hardest thing first. Help us, O Lord, to 
keep Jesus in our minds; not to forget His sacrifice 
for us; and to try to do the things He would like. 
Keep us in good health this day, and protect us from 
any kind of danger. All these blessings we ask in 
the Name of Jesus. Amen. 


READING: A FRIEND DESCRIBES CHARLES KINGs- 
LEY AS A SCHOOL-BOY 


F him more than of most men who have become 
famous it may be said, “the boy was father 

of the man.” ‘The vehement spirit, the adventurous 
courage, the love of truth, the impatience of injus- 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


tice, the quick and tender sympathy, that dis- 
tinguished the man’s entrance on public life, were 
all in the boy; and there was, besides, the same eager- 
ness in pursuit of physical knowledge, the same keen 
observation of the world around him, the same 
thoughtful temper of tracing facts to principles. For 
all his good qualities Charles was not popular as 
a school-boy. He knew too much and his mind was 
generally on a higher level than ours. ‘Then, too, 
though strong and active, Charles was not expert 
at games, .. . He was very tender-hearted—often 
more so than his school-fellows could understand; 
and what they did not understand they were apt 
to ridicule. ‘Che moral quality that preéminently 
distinguished him as a boy, was the generosity with 
which he forgave offence. He was keenly sensitive 
to ridicule; nothing irritated him more, but with 
the moment of offence the memory of it passed away. 
He had no place for vindictiveness in his heart. 


[tl 
PRAYER: A Busy HousEwIFE’s PRAYER 


LORD, this is all my desire,—to walk along 
the path of life Thou hast appointed me, in 
stedfastness of faith, in meekness of spirit, in love- 
liness of heart, in gentleness of love. And because 


[132] 


SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES 


outward events have such power to scatter my 
thoughts and disturb the inward peace in which 
alone I can hear Thy Spirit, do Thou, gracious 
Lord, calm and settle my soul by that power which 
alone can bring all thoughts and desires into cap- 
tivity to Thyself. Do Thou with all I have as 
seems best to Thee, for I know not what is best. 
Let not the cares or duties of this life press on me 
too heavily; but lighten my burden that I may 
follow in Thy way in quietness, filled with thank- 
fulness for Thy mercy and rendering acceptable 
service unto Thee. Amen. 


READING: OF THE Many Tuincs We WouLp 
LIKE To Do, ONLY A FEw Are ESSENTIAL 


Gt E is so short and time so fleeting that much 

which one would wish to do must fain be 
omitted. He is fortunate who perceives at a glance 
what it will do, and what it will not do, to omit. 
This invaluable faculty, if not possessed in a remark- 
able degree naturally, is susceptible of cultivation 
to a considerable extent. Let any one adopt the 
practice of reflecting every morning what must 
necessarily be done during the day, and then begin 
by doing the most important things first, leaving 
the others to take their chance of being done or left 
undone. In this way attention first to the things 


[133] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


of first importance soon acquires the almost irresis- 
tible force of habit, and becomes a rule of life. 
‘There is no rule more indispensable to success. 


LI 


PRAYER: IN TIME oF SICKNESS 


EAR God in whom I live and move and have 

my being, I open my heart that Thy spirit 
may flow into me and through me into the lives 
of others; and that Thy power which works in me 
may make me sound and whole again. 

O Eternal Fountain of all life and health, I thank 
Thee that Thou hast made me in Thy perfect image 
and that Thou art ever seeking to manifest Thy 
life in me as perfect health, that Thou mayest fulfil 
Thy purpose of love in me. I open myself to Thy 
healing power. O infinite Spirit of Christ within 
me, I seek Thy healing power. Amen. 


READING: THE SouL CAN PROFIT BY THE 
SUFFERING OF THE Bopy 


UFFERING that is merited is often a sharp 
reminder that saves and checks men on a down- 
ward path; suffering that is unmerited is an oppor- 


[134] 


SPECIAL DUTIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES 


tunity and a two-fold one—an opportunity to 
become like Christ and an opportunity to share His 
work. But it is an opportunity which is open to 
us to utilize or to let alone. ‘There is where prayer 
helps most of all. This world is a world of lost 
opportunity and waste. ‘Time, talent, money, life 
are constantly being squandered, but the worst waste 
of all is the waste of suffering. For suffering, when 
it does not elevate, degrades. Suffering is corrective, 
educative, and redemptive to those who love God 
from the beginning; in the second place, to those 
who as a result of the suffering of those—or to speak 
more strictly, as a result of the way in which those 
face and overcome their sufferings—are led to be 
come recruits in the great army of those who love 
God. . . . Even good men when not in their best 
moments will often say, “I did not deserve this.” 
Bitterness and resentment for a time possess the 
soul. . . . But the best men in the best moments 
do not, when trouble comes, raise the question of 
merit and desert at all. They just accept the suf- 
fering as something to be faced, something to be 
overcome. ‘Who going through this vale of misery 
use it for a well, and the pools are filled with 
water.” 


[135] 





Vv 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 





THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCES- 
SIONS 


LIV 


PRAYER: ‘THANKSGIVING FOR THE Joys OF LIFE 


G°P of life, we thank Thee for a man’s chance 

to live. For all the clean and wholesome joys 
of trained and disciplined bodies; for the ever abid- 
ing joys of trained and disciplined minds; for the 
friends whose strength and trueness add sunshine 
to the day, for all the happy memories of the past, 
the work and play of the present, the hope of fine 
achievements which irradiate the future, we give 
Thee hearty thanks. As we bow before Thee we 
would lift all these up in our hands and consecrate 
them whole-heartedly to Thy glory in the service 
of our fellows; not one talent unused, not one 
faculty undeveloped, not one opportunity neglected 
or grasped selfishly, but all devoted loyally to Thy 
will as we see it in Christ Jesus, to the growing 
of noble characters and the building up of a better 
world. Amen. 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


READING: REGARD Your LIFE AS A WHOLE 


HERE are times in every life when some 
present trouble or anxiety absorbs the soul, the 

sky is overcast, the horizon is narrowed, some 
cherished object is threatened or removed, or with- 
out any fault on our part we are entangled in cir- 
cumstances that appear too hard for us. Nay even, 
when there is no exceptional trial or unusual fear, 
some passing trouble may often hide from us the 
evidence of Divine mercy and protection. We are 
in danger of becoming like those whom Dante heard 
in the Inferno: ‘‘Sullen were we in the sweet air 
that is gladdened by the sun, now we lie sullen here 
in the black mire.” . . . There is no sin more easily 
besetting than the sin of unthankfulness. ‘The 
remedy is the same to which the Psalmist had re- 
course: to consider the years that are past.... 
If at some former time we have been turned from 
darkness to light and from the power of evil to 
good; if we can trace the hand of Providence in 
guarding us from dangers to which our ignorance 
or inexperience was exposed; or if at some critical 
moments our hearts have been lifted up into a con- 
scious nearness to the Infinite Source of Being, let 
not these cardinal facts be obscured through some — 
temporary irritation or distress, but let us dwell upon 
them in thought, let us try to contemplate our lives 


[140] 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 


each as a whole. ‘The effect of such meditation 
can hardly fail to be an increase of spiritual depth 
and strength. 


LV 


PRAYER: ‘THANKSGIVING FOR FAITHFUL WIT- 
NESSES TO THE TRUTH 


OR the faithful witness of all who have gone 
forth declaring the word of life; for the heroic 
souls of whom the world was not worthy; for those 
who for love of Christ were willing to lay down 
their lives for Him, we give Thee thanks and praise. 
For preachers and evangelists who have declared 
His message with grace and power; for those who 
in times of darkness kept alight the lamp of faith; 
for great souls who saw visions of larger truth and 
dared to declare it; and for the testimony of the 
saints in all ages, we give Thee thanks and praise. 
Amen. 


READING: A CONFESSION OF FAITH 


ae BELIEVE in the love of God through Jesus 

Christ. 

I believe in the Cross of Calvary as the ground plan 
of the universe. 


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A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


I believe in the transcendental meaning and hope 
of Life. 

I believe that the true goods of life lie in the unseen, 
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 

I believe that the real values of life are the good, 
the true, and the beautiful. 

I believe in the salvability and immortality of every 
man, and in the infinite value of every living 
soul, 

I believe in the practicability of the Kingdom of 
God, and in freedom to choose it and to work 
for it. 

I believe in the sacramental quality of my day’s 
work and that I may see and serve God in it. 

I believe in a grace that can overcome my selfishness 
and pride, and that will enable me to overcome 
temptation, and upon which I need never call 
in vain. 

I believe in love as the final law of life. 

And in this faith, by the help of God, I mean to 
live this day and all my days. 


LVI 
PRAYER: A THANKSGIVING FOR DivINE MERCIES 
LORD our God, whose great glory is written 


all across Thy heavens, yet whose greatest glory 
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THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 


is to dwell in the lowly hearts of those who serve 
‘Thee here; Grant unto us Thine abiding presence, 
and give our souls Thy peace. When we consider 
Thy goodness and Thy majesty in all Thou hast 
made, our hearts are hushed before Thee, our souls 
bow down in silence in Thy presence, as Thou pass- 
est through our lives. We are as nothing, O God. 
In ‘Thy great creation we are but wandering dust. 
And yet we thank Thee for Thy thought of us, 
for all Thy love shown to us in ways past finding 
out, for all Thy mercies which we can never reckon 
up. When we wander from Thy way, Thou dost 
not cast us off. ‘Thy love goes out seeking us, 
recalling us from the waste, wild places where our 
soul is lost. Do Thou raise us up when we fall: 
give us the power to stand, and lend us the guiding 
light of the Cross of Thy dear Son, to lead us home 
where shadows are no more. For His sake. Amen. 


READING: Gop 1s Goop As MEN UNDERSTAND 
THE Worp Goop 


Hi in your minds the one idea of an absolutely 
good God; good with all forms of goodness 
which you respect and love in man; good as you 
and I and every honest man, understand the plain 
word good. Slowly you will acquire that grand 
and all-illuminating idea, “slowly and most imper- 


[143] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


fectly at best”’—for who is mortal man that he 
should conceive and comprehend the goodness of 
the infinitely good God. And see then whether 
in the light of that one idea all the old-fashioned 
Christian ideas about the relation of God to man; 
whether Providence, Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation, 
the Incarnation, the Passion and final triurnph of 
the Son of God—whether all these, I say, do not 
seem to you not merely beautiful, not merely prob- 
able, but logical, rational and necesssary moral con- 
sequences from the one idea of an absolute and 
eternal goodness, the living Parent of the Universe. 


LVII 


PRAYER: AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 


@* give [Thee humble and hearty thanks, O 

God, that the testimony of old is ours also. 
Surely goodness and mercy have folowed us all the 
days of our life. We thank Thee that our friends 
have not failed us, that love’s light has not died 
down. We thank Thee that we have work to do 
and some reward and hearts who esteem us. For 
all that our friends have done for us during the 
year that is now nearly closed, we thank Thee. For 
all the good we have left undone, we ask Thy mercy. 
For all the beauty we have seen and all the sweetness 


[144] 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 


we have tasted, and for every new power that has 
been born in us we praise Thee and sing a song 
of exultation. 

Guide us, O living God, on the upward path to 
larger responsibilities, to new truth and to richer 
experiences. 

And now, as we approach another year, let us 
enter it with buoyant steps as into a land where 
happiness awaits us, and should sorrow be our por- 
tion, help us to find the blessing that lies hidden in 
its heart. Amen. 


Reapinc: Lire Is Nor To Br MeEasurep By 
YEARS 


ROBABLY the most common reflection in 

men’s minds at this season of the year is the 
thought of life’s transitoriness, and as we grow older 
the change of date seems to occur with ever-increas- 
ing rapidity till it becomes almost minatory. But 
life transcends time. ‘To measure it only by years 
is a convention. Its worth is not reckoned in that 
way. Moreover, if we think of life only in terms 
of our dealings with our fellow-men, we find it little 
else than a desperate venture in which we sooner or 
later forget its purpose. Life has higher ranges of 
service and achievement in a world of spiritual reali- 
ties whose existence is assured by the experience of 


[145] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


all those who have trusted themselves to it. ‘The 
full use of life is impossible to any man whose 
thoughts, aims, aspirations, and endeavors are con- 
fined to things temporal. At best he uses only a 
part of life and he is more than three parts dead. 

‘Those who have the true conception of the fulness 
of life will not be less effective in the tasks which 
confront them in this world’s business. It is no sign 
of spiritual vitality to neglect its demands on our 
time and strength. We shall deal with them all the 
more effectively not only because we hold them at 
their true value but also because we bring to them 
a new power which can put them to their proper 
use and guide them to the fulfilment of their proper 
end. If they are no longer the chief concern of 
our thoughts and efforts they will still be regarded 
as fixing the conditions which put our life to use 
in service to God and our fellows, means by which 
we attain the grace of an ever-developing life. 


LVIII 


PRAYER: For INTERNATIONAL GOODWILL 


THOU, who hast made of one blood all nations 
of men, help us to see the largeness and wis- 
dom of Thy ways. ‘Thou dost love all men and 
dost yearn to bring them into the fulness of Thine 


[146] 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 


own rich life. While we glory in the Christ whom 
Thou hast given us, preserve us, Heavenly Father, 
from spiritual arrogance and race pride. Open our 
eyes to the goodness and truth Thou hast revealed 
to others. Make us more like Christ who rejoiced 
in the faith of the Roman centurion and praised 
the noble deeds of the good Samaritan. Hasten the 
day when race pride and prejudice shall vanish from 
the earth and universal goodwill prevail. Forgive, 
O Lord, our narrowness, our selfishness, our pride 
and lead us into the fulness of Thine own infinite 
life. Make us in truth Thy children: through 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 


READING: [HE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WHOLE 
RACE Is DEMANDED BY THE FATHERHOOD OF GoD 


HERE is a Father in the universe, who is in 

the closest conceivable relation to every soul 
that feels, to every spirit that breathes a desire for 
good. ‘This is a bond which never can be broken 
and which assures the salvation of all from evil. 
Bound up with God, of necessity, is personal im- 
mortality, continued life and progress. Death is but 
a step in that progress, and in that belief its fear 
is conquered. Moreover the brotherhood of the 
whole race and the duties of brotherhood, are, in 
this common union of all with God the Father, 
secured and demanded. ‘This double faith in the 


[147] 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man 


is bound up with Jesus, our brother, the man who 
declared it in the best way, whom therefore we 
accept as Master on the earth. ... In Him the 
ideal of life among men was translated into work 
for man. And that ideal is this: Love one another 
even to death: love by giving up all you have and 
are for the service of your brothers; live to bless and 
not to injure men; then when love is perfect you 
will be at one with God. ‘This is the ideal of man’s 
life with man. 


LIX 


PRAYER: For MANKIND 


SPIRIT of Truth! May the way of life be 

lighted up for all mankind! Grant us not 
only to see and abhor the evil but to know how 
to overcome evil with good. Send us prophets and 
leaders who come not to destroy, but to fulfil. In 
the face of all confusion and error, fraud and 
violence, and of man’s inhumanity to man, grant 
that we may never lose our faith that right makes 
might, that truth and love are stronger than false- 
hood and hate, and that this is Thy world throughout 
all generations. Let ‘Thy name be our strong tower 
and rock of defence. In that name may we set up 


[148] 


THANKSGIVINGS AND INTERCESSIONS 


our banners, and fight the good fight of faith and 
convert every defeat into a victory. Amen. 


READING: MAN Is THE HIGHEST REPRESENTATIVE 
oF DeEITty oN EARTH 


ERRIBLY imperfect as yet, because so recently 

evolved, he is nevertheless a being which has 
at length attained to consciousness and free-will, a 
being unable to be coerced by the whole force of 
the universe, against his will; a spark of the Divine 
Spirit, therefore, nevermore to be quenched. Open 
still to awful horrors, to agonies of remorse but to 
floods of joy also, he persists, and his destiny is 
largely in his own hands; he may proceed up or 
down, he may advance towards a magnificent as- 
cendancy, he may recede towards depths of infamy. 
He is not coerced, he is guided and influenced, but 
he is free to choose. The evil and the good are 
necessary correlations; freedom to choose the one, 
invokes freedom to choose the other. ... The 
Christian idea of God is not that of a Being outside 
the universe, above the struggles and advances, look- 
ing on and taking no part in the process, solely 
exalted, beneficent, self-determined and complete; no, 
it is also that of a God who loves, who yearns, who 
suffers, who enters into the storm and conflict, and 
is subject to conditions as the Soul of it all. 


[149] 





vi 


IN MEMORIAM 





IN MEMORIAM 
LX 


PRAYER: IN BEHALF OF A FRIEND WuHo HAs 
PAsseD INTO THE UNSEEN 


GOD, the God of spirit and of all flesh, in 

whose embrace all creatures live, in whatsoever 
world or condition they be, I beseech Thee for him 
whose name and dwelling-place and every need Thou 
knowest. Lord, vouchsafe him light and rest, peace 
and refreshment, joy and consolation, in Paradise, 
in the companionship of saints, in the presence of 
Christ, in the ample folds of Thy great love. 

Grant that this life (so troubled here) may un- 
fold itself in Thy sight, and find a sweet employ- 
ment in the spacious fields of eternity. If he hath 
ever been hurt or maimed by any unhappy word or 
deed of mine, I pray Thee of Thy great pity to 
heal and restore Him, that he may serve ‘Thee 
without hindrance. Tell him, O gracious Lord, if 
it may be, how much I love him and miss him and 
long to see him again; and, if there be ways in 
which he may come, vouchsafe him to me as a guide 
and guard, and grant me a sense of his nearness, 
in such degree as Thy laws permit. 


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If in aught I can minister to his peace, be pleased 
of Thy love to let this be; and mercifully keep me 
from every act which may deprive me of the sight 
of him as soon as our trial-time is over, or mar the 
fulness of our joy when the end of the days hath 
come. Pardon, O gracious Lord and Father, what- 
soever is amiss in this my prayer, and let Thy will 
be done; for my will is blind and erring, but ‘Thine 
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that 
we ask or think; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 


READING: DEATH IS A BIRTH UNTO A NEw LIFE 


0 BARS only true counterpart to death is birth. 

Both are death to an old world, and life to 
a new. If there be a life after death, we may be 
sure that it is a real thing, that is to say, part of 
a general biological process—not a poetic, architec- 
tural or musical fantasy. We shall carry to that 
world all that we are—our knowledge, our thoughts 
and memories, our affections, our sense of humor, 
our virtues, our vices and our special aptitudes. It 
all seems wonderful and fairy-like to us now, just 
as foreign cities we visit in our travels seem so 
remote and unreal that we cannot imagine that their 
inhabitants lead commonplace lives like our own. 
This is only an illusion. When we enter that world 


[154] 


IN MEMORIAM 


it will be to us the only reality, while this life will 
seem like a dream. 


EX! 


PRAYER: For THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 


UR God, we thank Thee that to Thee there 

are no barriers between this world and the 
other; but that hand in hand, they who have passed 
on and they that remain may even now in prayer 
draw near to Thyself and to each other as unitedly 
and as naturally as little children round their 
mother’s knee. 

We thank Thee that in Thy presence all barriers 
break, all illusions dissolve, all accidents of time 
and space vanish away, all separation, all bereave- 
ment, is abolished in the exceeding glory of Thine 
audience chamber. Keep us all safe today in Thy 
spiritual city, both those that see Thee face to face, 
and we whose vision is yet dimmed by the flesh; 
give us all work to do, battles to fight, difficulties 
to overcome, and the joy of victory. Amen. 


READING: WeE CAN AFFECT THE DEAD AND THE 
Deap Can AFFECT Us 


UR present total inability to know the circum- 
stances under which departed souls live does 


[155] 


A BOOK OF MODERN PRAYERS 


not affect our knowledge of their relation to God, 
and ours to them through Him. ‘That knowledge 
is grounded on our knowledge of the character of 
God which is the revelation of Christianity; and it 
carries important and far-reaching implications as 
to the eternal relationship of souls to Him and to 
one another. Hence if we believe that God exists 
as Christ reveals Him, that men are related as Christ 
taught us we are, and that the self or soul or spirit 
—whatever we choose to call it—of each fellow- 
creature still consciously lives, we are impelled to 
consider our attitude, and indeed our duty to this 
great host of our fellows, and to our own beloved 
amongst them. If we and they and future genera- 
tions are in some real sense parts of one organic 
community, their welfare is dependent upon ours 
and our welfare upon theirs. Science and history, 
even the last word of modern archaeology have been 
bringing home to us the unity of the race as it 
exists on earth more and more forcibly in practical 
ways. ... If there is any actual communion be- 
tween the dead and us as they make faster or slower 
progress in the knowledge of God, it is possible that 
they may help or hinder us. 


[156] 


AUTHORS OF PRAYERS 


PRAYERS 


ow A. TIpPLe... 
. W. A. KNIGHT. 
. R. L. STEVENSON 
EIA NON. a's edtcots os 
- S. McComes ... 

ere CARD io. Jo 6a 


Pia NONe twice cd «ss 
PtAANON ies dale cers . 
. J. S. HoyLAnD.. 
UAL RIOBEN as 5 <a 
. ABDUL BAHA ... 
. S. McComs .... 


. H. W. BEECHER. 
. B. Jowetr 
wederoe FIOYLAND.. 
. ANON, 
. ANON. 


. H. YOULDEN 
(Adapted) ... 
. JOHN HUNTER .. 
. J. H. NEWMAN.. 
Paki VR IEPLE she 


I. 3, COBBE ::..« 


PAGE 


READINGS 


EDMOND HoLMEs.. 
G. F. BARBOUR... 
C. Gore (Bishop) 
W..S. Bruce..... 


F, W. RoBErTSON. 
S. A. BROOKE..... 


eeereaeevreee 8 


eeeeeed 


eoeeeveeeeee 


Ri) hs CHARLES... 
G. MacDonaLD.. 
H. DRUMMOND 

F, D. MAvRICE... 
Lee) PACKS 25 0 six’ 
M. MAETERLINCK. 
E. J. BICKNELL... 
H. D. A. Major. 
BAIGWETT Cues vk 
E. WORCESTER ... 


J. L. SPENDER..... 


Biol dit thORT ese 
G. M. GwarkKIN.. 


oeoeeee 


| 
S) 
ics! 
Z 
Zz 
Les! 
x 


F. von HUGEL.... 
G. TYRRELL 


eeeee 


eres ee ee ee 


PAGE 


XXXI. 
XXXII. 


XXXITI. 


XXXIV. 
XXXV. 
XXXVI. 


XXXVITI. 


XXXVIII. 


XXXIX. 
XL. 
XLI. 


XLII. 


XLII. 
XLIYV. 
XLV. 
XLVI. 
XLVII. 
XLVIII. 
XLIX. 
L. 

LI. 
LI. 
LIL 
LIV. 
LV. 
LVI. 
LVII. 


LVIII. 
LIX, 
LX. 
LXI. 


AUTHORS OF PRAYERS 


PRAYERS PAGE 
C. M. ADDISON... 87 
ANON cv hooters 88 
ARON Garnet 93 


R. L. STEVENSON. 95 


J. MARTINEAU... 97 
ANON saves + 99 
S. McComB..... 100 
W. RAUSCHEN- 
BUSCH}: Vsd'eins s FLO 
S. McComs .... 104 
M. DEARMER .... 106 
J. H. VINCENT 
(Bishop) ..... 107 
HEBREW UNION 
PRAYER-BOOK.. 108 
J. H. NEWMAN... 111 
ANON Pe siycls Cs 115 
ANON. Sees i eohess 117 
W. E. ORCHARD. 119 
ANON Bs sea te 120 
G. DAWSON .... 122 
S. McCoMB..... 127 
E. D. HEWINS... 129 
J. J. SCHWED.... 131 
MS HARE un viseut Re 
V. R. GIBSON... 134 
H. H. TWeeEDy.. 139 
ANON, ov ainleoniae ts 141 
LOOM. WATE SOs. 142 
H. YOULDEN 
(adapted) .... 144 
S. L. GULICK... 146 
A. NOW tase pice ties 148 
W. GRIFFITHS .. 153 
J. S. HoyLAND.. 155 


[158] 


READINGS 


ANON. 
W. JAMES 


G. B. FostTer.... 
G. McHarpy .... 


F. D. MAvRICE... 
J... RU SEELEY..3 2 
S. A. BROOKE.... 
H. S. MELLONE... 


R. W. CHURCH... 


J. Carrp 


Fy RUCKERT (Jceus 
W. H. MosBERLy.. 
F. J. PARADISE.... 
J. HH. JOWEET aye 
A. C. BENSON.... 


L. ABBOTT 


W. E. ORCHARD.. 


ANON. 
ANON. 


B. H. STREETER... 
L. CAMPBELL Sees 


R. ROBERTS 


C. .KINGSLEY 2a 


ANON. 


S. A. BROOKE.... 


ANON. 


E. WORCESTER ... 


L. DoUGALL 


eeeeereeeve 


eseeveaeeeveer 


eeerneveee 


eee eevee en 


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